Breaking the Darkness

2012-02-12T00:22:00.000-08:00

I will up sail for the far haven.
To seek the land of peace and tarry no longer here in the dark.
My heart is set and bent on gaining that country.
It is not given me to know the length of my journey or even the way of it.
But setting aside what is behind I go forward to seek what is ahead.
And when the turn of time brushes the darkness from my eyes.
A hand will grasp mine drawing me through the vale and into everlasting sunlight.
Joy and the haven will be mine.
Face to face with my Lord, to pay homage to the Everlasting King.

Green

2011-11-17T11:41:00.000-08:00

The knee-jerk reaction to recycling or the environmental movement among many Christians (myself included) is to discount it as yet another Liberal banditry to gain control of money and minds. The money of adults and the minds of children in general. However it is a good idea to look at both sides of an issue and make a decision based not on the political ideology you personally espouse but on facts. And it is wise to construct in your mind how you'd go about discussing it with someone who has an opposite view from yourself. Perhaps you will never be called to talk about it (and that might be all to the good) but you will be ahead in the game if your ready.

Here is my breakdown of the two thoughts, I recognize they are oversimplifications so feel free to weigh in with your view.

The Environmentalist see a world where garbage is piling up and we are a nation of wasters. They see the wanton destruction of land and animals as deeply disturbing and horrifying, and they have taken measures to prevent it.

The Opposition (do they have a name?) sees a world where people live and that creates garbage and it is not criminal to do so. They see the pushing of boundaries of nature as a normal expanse of human existence and animals must give way to people. They (at least I) see the earth as being held together by God, and it isn't really in the power of humans to destroy it irrevocably. However He did leave this earth to us and we are it's stewards.

Each side has valid points and they need to hear each other out, even if in the end you still don't agree, being courteous never hurt anyone. And also it would help if both sides would admit their religious view point drives what they do and how they do it. We Christians need to see that for the Greeny this is their god (wither they admit it or no), this they need to protect and keep safe from all harm. Compassion must govern our actions, because if you are compassionate to someone they will respond to that and perhaps hear you out. I can not argue the opposite thought but I can tell you how I see the issue and what I'd like to do about it.

The world belongs to God, He sustains it and holds it together, but He gave it to us and we are it's stewards. Which means we use it wisely and in a loving manner, a loving manner for humans as well as animals. You do NOT just take away someone's livelihood just because it offends your sense of how nature should be used, this is ugly and unjust. But neither do you hunt and kill a species into extinction or strip log a mountain into a barren wasteland. On the flip side it isn't good for nature to be left unattended and unused, a well tended forest produces a bountiful harvest of trees, however in one left alone disease grows, bugs destroy and a fire can decimate thousands of acres. An animal species reintroduced without a natural predator quickly starts to overrun other species and in the case of the wolf in the Inland Northwest, decimate the deer and elk population. There are checks and balances in nature and whether they like it or not, one of them is people. And it isn't wrong that we are checking and balancing.

Yesterday my brother's Swiss girlfriend (the Swiss are known for their extreme recycling) what I thought of the issue. Our family does not, in the traditional sense of the word, recycle; however in the older sense of the idea behind recycling, we are pretty good at it. We buy in bulk (less packaging), shop at thrift stores, wash out and reuse our plastic bags, yogurt containers and other items with lids. Can our own food in glass jars that never get thrown away, compost (off and on), buy used cars and heat using a sustainable resource (trees) which we get off our own property from the standing dead wood. My Mother and Grandpa are the Queen and King at fixing broken things so we don't have to throw them away or finding a new use for items that are no longer able to function. We garden (with spotty success) and have owned free range chickens. But much of what we do is driven by thriftiness and hugely by our belief in God. My Dad was teaching us the "Pack it in, pack it out" rule from a very young age, and it had even more to do with respect for other people then with respect for the earth. Because how could the next hiker enjoy the walk if at the end there was a pile of trash greeting them?

So my love for God will drive me to continue to be thrifty, keep a clean, tidy house and yard. Be careful with my things, reuse, recycle and be respectful of others. If an attitude of respectfulness and thriftiness was taught to children I think that would go a long way to changing what is happening on the nature front. But using the resources isn't evil, I appreciate gas for my car and at the moment the electricity to power my computer and warm my house. I'm thankful that God thought to put such wonderful things on earth and in His wisdom made it so the earth can sustain an ever growing population. As well as creating us with thinking minds that are striving to find better ways of doing things, whether it is the new water boiler in my parents house that heats more efficiently or solar power which might replace other more traditional types of power. Humans have been given the ability to invent and we can change. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water, don't make it impossible for some people to survive just because you want to protect nature. Have compassion on them, nature is never more important then humans.

Death.

2011-10-24T12:04:00.001-07:00

Something profound is happening in all of us. We are either dead and dying. Or alive and dying. Dead in the soul and dying in the body, or alive in the soul and dying in the body. Every person you see falls into one of these two categories, this is profound because in the end, when the body dies and the soul is released, it goes to right or to the left; into the light or into the darkness. We'll all stand before the throne of the King and a reckoning will happen...

I have a friend who has cancer and her body is dying; slowly, slowly the disease and medications have pared away all excess from her and in doing so one gets a glimpse of her living soul. Its as if she is translucent, and the liquid gold of God's love and peace that is flowing through her, can be seen with the naked eye. It would seem an oxymoron to say that as she walks closer to death, she is more alive then ever. But contrast is a beautiful and terrible thing as Ansel Adams shows this so incredibly in his photographs, or in charitable, sacrificial act, when set against a concentration camp background is, overwhelmingly powerful. So her faith, trust and love in the Lord, having been placed in stark juxtaposition to the bleakness of her illness, cause us to see more clearly her living redeemed soul in a dying body.

That isn't to say we don't grieve, I've been grieving for her pain and the pain her family is experiencing from the time she found out she was ill. But this grief is not the grief that the world has, I know her soul is alive and while her earthly body is coming to an end, her soul is preparing to go to her heavenly Father. This cracked and tired husk will fall away and she will rise up renewed, to run (as she loved to run when strong and healthy) and to not grown weary. We'll most likely not meet again on earth, however we WILL meet again. Heaven is where she'll be and as I'm going there too, our meeting is assured. Right now, I'm on the slow path, but in the end we will both be sitting at the same table, at the feast of the Lamb, rejoicing together. Death where is your sting? It has been swallowed up in victory!

2011-03-05T12:23:00.000-08:00

The heart which was strong, ceased to beat.

Eyes fluttered and closed.

Loosely the hands gentled to lay still.

Pain flowed out and drifted into nothing to be felt no more.

The end came and with it the beginning.

Stars leaned close and flickers of wings tipped the sky.

Singing came forth and rejoicing poured in.

A child coming home.

A child dancing home.

A child welcomed home.

Rest for the weary.

Joy unrestrained.

Tears no more felt and grief washed away.

A Shepherd gathering in His lamb and going home.

The Dawn Treader

2011-01-29T11:51:00.000-08:00

Right up front let it be stated that I'm a stickler for the following of books rather strictly when they are being produced in movie form.

Now, I know they can't catch every nuance, or portray the characters exactly as the author described them, especially not an author of Lewis' caliber. However it would be polite of them to at least try. It would be nice to have it explained how screenwriters manage to make such a mess out the thing. Here is a book that has charmed thousands of people, children and adults alike, ever since it was first published. It is witty, charming, zesty, fairly dripping in adventure and chock full of memorable characters. With deft strokes Lewis spun a tale that should (and does) keep one on the edge of ones seat, he gave the film makers everything to create a spectacular tale.

But. They. Crashed. Burned. And. Ruined. It.

Not only that, if you took the film solely on it's artistic merit you'd be sadly disappointed. It is badly filmed, badly acted, poor (bordering on moronic) lines and rushed. Getting a new director did the film company no favors, he failed to draw out of his actors even a tenth of what the previous director had managed.

Perhaps at the one of the first meetings to discus the film someone (a bigwig) said "Look, children are stupid, they'll be satisfied with drivel and Christians are gonna love the film no matter what we do. Because it will be family friendly and about Narnia, so lets not spend to much time on it." And then the next person pipes up "Yeah, and lets put in some green mist, there isn't enough green mist in films these days. I'm picturing Simple Green here."

Thus was born the key plot line, a gangling, all elbows and knees, embarrassed at being shoved into and above the real story, apologetic and not knowing where to look. The search for Aslan's country, noble deeds, fights, friendships, the conquering of self and the defending of innocent lives isn't enough material to make an exciting movie. We need a green mist that makes no sense, with an emphasis on self betterment, awkward friendships (Lucy's with the small girl) along with a general debasing of all characters. With the (boring) culmination, not a leaning on Aslan, but a "We can do it" slogan infused with a pathetic attempt at an exciting magical twist (the seven swords).

Sadly the pathos that is attempted to be interjected by the adding of a Father and small girl who have lost their wife and Mother to the green mist, adds no pathos at all. The best part happens at the end when they jump off the ship to swim out to the Mother after she's been found, but the reunion isn't what brings joy. It is the fact that, praise God, their no longer cluttering up the deck and acting as flies in the ointment. The only thing better would have been if they'd gotten washed away sooner.

Lewis did not consider children (or Christians) to be stupid or unable to grasp "higher and deeper" ideals and thoughts. His tales are always refreshing, biting, with a crisp edge as well as a homely and gentle touch that was genus. I respected that as a child and still do as an adult. It is my opinion that this film would have made him chuckle but on the other hand be rather annoyed because it deliberately drags us down to the level of oatmeal. Feeding neither the imagination nor the soul. Giving us nothing to aspire to, trampling on the wild joy and creativity that should have been a directors dream to portray.

I never thought I'd say this but....I hope they don't make another one, it obviously can only get worse from here on out.

Seeing is believing.

2010-09-13T05:03:00.000-07:00

Last night in my mind was the thought "How can you explain a relationship with Jesus Christ, to someone who doesn't know him?".

Really, relationships are rather intangible things to begin with, I mean try explain in clear, simple terms why you love a good friend. Express to a person who has never met them, just WHO that friends IS.

It isn't to hard to skim the surface "We both love rock climbing, we have great conversations, we adore putting the smack-down on the same people." But still that doesn't explain why that person brings joy to you, or even an accurate description of their personality. So the only solution is for them to meet, for the one to see the other and come to know them. How much harder is it to express a spiritual connection and adoption?

So in a sense when I try and express through words, who Jesus Christ and Father are it will be rather useless and awkward. I don't mean totally useless since we are to "confess with our mouths" as well as "give a reason for the hope we have." But I think if there isn't more focus on living and less on talking you will never truly show Jesus to someone.

This is brought solidly home to me by one of my friends, Puschel. She is 26 years old, athletic, smart, loving and kind. She took her degree in nursing and then spent the last years working at a Bible school and then at a orphanage in South America. In 2007 she was diagnosed with cancer in her hip, after three years of torturous operations and treatments she is able to walk but is missing half of her pelvis and a bone in her lower leg. And since they had to cut the sciatic nerve she has no feeling in her lower leg and foot. When I saw her in 2008 she weighed maybe a hundred pounds (she is probably about 5'9) and couldn't walk, her younger brother or Dad would carry her to the bed, bathroom or where ever she need to go. It would take a lot of time to explain all of which has happened, the chemo, morphine, blood infection, bones breaking, general sickness, more chemo and finally a reduction in cancer activity. And then, it came back. As a huge tumor on her spine and also showing up in her lungs. So now she is dealing with that.

But the light of Jesus is shining through her. To see her is to see the glow of God's love burning, burning and burning in her. In what should only be a depressed and bitter person, there is peace, laughter, cheerfulness and abundant joy. It just flows out of her and all who see her know that God is walking along side. Through her actions and demeanor this is proclaimed, although she isn't afraid to speak about Him and confess His name to the world. But her actions speak louder then any words ever could, she is focused on living Him and it shows in line of her frame. Rather like Dorian Gray, just in reverse. More and more the old Adam is burned away and more and more Jesus Christ is put in His place.

So I guess I'm taking that home with me,I too need to walk so closely with Jesus that all who see me see Him first without my mouth ever being opened. So my old Adam must die and the new Adam be put in his place.

Also Germans...

2010-09-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

When you exit the train station and find a skuzz of homeless punks sprawled on the sidewalk, your best option is to move away quietly. Don't make eye contact, keep your hands at your sides, and don't make sudden movements, or they just might charge. Of course charging would consist of them de-entangling their legs from sleeping bags, putting down the beer bottles and standing up. So really the risk is very low if their to lazy do anything but sit in the rain at the train station then their probably to lazy to do any charging. However when in doubt move away is my motto.

So we did. Then because we weren't sure if we were moving in the right direction we moved back again. Missing our ride because of punks wasn't really a step in the right direction. However, after much careful detective work it was ascertained that, no indeed, this was not the place where we should be. No MacDonalds for instance. Also at this point it became clear that speaking no German (for once) had an upside. Whatever they were hollering out wasn't hitting their target and that gave me a rather warm and happy feeling. I almost wanted to go and pat them on the head and say "You poor little, foul mouthed dude, nothing you are saying means anything to me. Just stop talking and drink more beer." Actually not really, but it was nice we didn't understand.

Also it might be best NOT to buy train tickets for travel on Friday afternoon in Germany. Everyone is going home from work, or away for the weekend. And every child from ages 12 to 17 is in a hiking club that is going hiking. Our second train had roughly 634 of these alpiners on it, they were slouched over under packs as big as they, squashing into the cars with vim and vigor appropriate to their age and healthy pursuit. The club flags and some very odd stick things with small chains attached to them were endangering the train and other passengers. Perhaps they played a game in which you gained points for every unsuspecting person you impale.

And to wrap up our last train ride we met The Guy. He was wearing a sparkly, blue, sequin covered cowboy hat. Carrying a big flower arrangement. And a beer bottle. Sadly the train was really full and that meant he was going to sit...right....across.....from....us. Beer stink was also wafting from him.

Our plan of action was to turn up the music, lift up the books and be really deep in reading. However that didn't stop him from asking for my help to fix something on his hat. I am happy to report I understood his German and knew exactly what he wanted and I'm even happier to report that the German came springing to my lips to say "I speak no German." He was disappointed, but I not. After trying for a long time to fix his hat he went off in a doze or beer sleep for a time, only snapping out of it to attempt to talk with Tivoli. After that I as the intrepid leader decided it was time for us to go, we went so fast we almost took out the flower arrangement. Thank goodness we were only ten minutes from our stop so jumping up and rushing to the door to stand with our packs on wasn't hardship. And so ended our second to last train trip...

Germany for ever!

2010-09-09T01:10:00.000-07:00

Riding the rails.

This is what Tivoli and I are doing, and I'm not sure it is quite as exciting as she hoped except for the "We are late and going to miss the next train if we don't run", which then turned into "Darn we got on the wrong train and now have to pay extra" part. Oh well that is life when you are traveling. Sadly right when I feel like I've gotten into the swing of things and can train travel again our trip is almost over. With just two more train rides to go.

We left Switzerland last Friday at 7:51 am, Schyler took us to the station and I have the sneaking feeling that he wasn't totally sad to see us go. Guys and girls travel differently and while our car trip went pretty smoothly, we were given the chance to become kinder more loving Christians at times. Or maybe just us girls were and the boys didn't have any problems.

Anyhow we made it to Stuttgart Germany right on time and hopped off the train into the waiting arms of our friend Priska...well not really. I being American forgot to tell her which train we would be on, not even thinking that yes there might be TWO trains from Switzerland coming in at the same time. Silly me, I thought they just sent one a day....But as Tivoli pointed out "She is German, she is on time and she is here" which proved to be true. After much hugging and some more hugging (yeah we are girls) we went to her sister, Sarah's house for lunch and to spend sometime hanging out there. Priska is doing one of her big tests for her teachers degree this week so had to spend some time studying. No problem, we went to the farmers place to get veggies with Sarah and her children and walk the dog. Their dog is crazy, this is all I can say.

On Saturday we went to the Ritter Sport factory to look at the museum. Ritter Sport is a very cool chocolate bar that comes in a hundred gram square. It is one of my favorite to eat for this reason. Plus they have some really fun flavors and combos. After spending wildly in the outlet shop we headed home for lunch. In the evening we played poker, I lost, and met Priska's boyfriend to whom we gave the old hairy eyeball and he came out just fine. We are going to let them keep dating.

Sunday was spent going to church and then for a hike in the Blackforest which was incredibly green and lovely! It was like drinking in water and basking in soft golden light, drifting through heavenly trees. If there had been no other people on the trail, you might have thought we stepped into Lord of the Rings. After this we went home again for coffee and cake. Did I mention that Germans have coffee and cake every afternoon? Well they do and I think it is a pretty wonderful invention myself. We also took time to bake American cookies and a northern German poppyseed cake, they both turned out pretty good.

Somewhere in here I also bought train tickets, which I did all backwards and wrong. It was frustrating and angerfying, but water under the bridge. Now I won't make the same mistakes ever again, I'll make new ones.

Köln on Tuesday; this is a very pretty city, the Dom (church) is amazing and worth seeing. Tivoli and I agreed we like this one the best, although it's acoustics weren't as nice as Saint Peters in Rome. And no Wesley we didn't try and sing in it...for once. However we did sing on the train in honor of you. Our Opa found us standing in front of the train station, well down from the creepy homeless guys skuzzing it up on the pavement. This was a time it was good NOT to know German.

He took us for a drive around the countryside and then home for coffee and cake. This is also the trip where I got us on the Express train, which was wrong. The poor conductor didn't know what to do with us, when he started to explain in German I put on my "I am totally confused and don't know what you are saying face" and then when he got the jist across I added to that my "I'm just a poor girl who was trying to catch a train while carrying a very heavy backpack, have pity on us" face. It half worked, he only charged for me and left Tivoli (the kinder) out of the deal.

Wednesday saw us once again at the train station ready to roll, dragging an ever increasing bag full of chocolate. For those of you who are going to get said chocolate you should start appreciating NOW what we are bringing you. This bag is a trial and the bane of our lives.
With two (yes count them, two) conections to catch I had put on my running shoes, not that I ever run in them but you never know. It turned out to be pretty simple, Katha found us no problem and we once again had coffee and cake. Then we made dinner, American cookies, and played cards (I won) and then went to bed. I have to say right here that I have the cutest adopted niece EVER, she is so sweet, friendly, and lisps the most adorable German. And oddly enough I can understand the baby German her parents speak to her, that tells you where my German is at.

Photo smack down!

2010-09-02T05:25:00.000-07:00

Wesley's parking job.
Schyler in the Crotian sun.
Yes look at my HAIR.
The Glacier.
A field of fennel.
Tivoli is ready to go.
TIvoli has arrived.
Emmi and I.
A drool fest for the guys.
Schyler wearing Latvian fashion.
Tallis....
Yes, that is a skeleton saint.
Favorite picture from Pompey.
Lions and tigers and bears oh my!
I love it. It is so tasty.

Switzerland, Italy, Slovinia, Bosnia, Croatia, Italy and Switzerland.

2010-09-01T05:08:00.001-07:00

Fried fish.
Mount Vesuvius.
Fanta.
Fried Fish.
Pompey.
Pompey.
Croatia.
The Swiss Alps.
Our bed.
Tivoli's new hair cut.

That is the order of the countries we passed through in the last two weeks. Yes two weeks ago TODAY (it being Wednesday over here) we left for our grand car adventure. Now two weeks later, much more savvy in the ways of car travel, replete with stories and full of Angel Babies we have come back to Switzerland to regroup and then take off on another adventure. Except we lost Wesley somewhere back in Italy. We have his hat and sunglasses, but the man just up and disappeared. Perhaps he was raptured.

Our trip started out with an epic pan of the Swiss Alps which degenerated into free wheeling around corners when the engine cut out. Try that heart stopper on for size, Swiss Alps, no guard rail to speak of and car with no power steering. Thankfully Schyler figured out what was wrong, the altitude was so much that the engine wasn't getting the oxygen it needed and then when he clutched around the corners the engine died. From there on it was a piece of cake, we only screamed on the REALLY scary corners. The first night was spent at a truck stop sleeping in the car, my concern was not to smash the bread which was in the back with me, Wesley's concern was not to get murdered.

Getting into Croatia was easy we just drove through, didn't even have to show our passports or anything. Driving down the coast was a treat, the lovely sparkling blue waters were so beautiful to look at. And our spirits weren't to dampened by the freakish black, spiny things that lived in the water because it was so warm.

The food was good, good pizza and wonderful, WONDERFUL fried calamari! It was the best.

There is way more to tell but I'll post this right now so you can read about how much fun we are having. Also the pictures are not in order so just guess at what we are taking pictures of.

Europe

2010-08-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

I take the time to post because I love alllll my readers and want them to share in the joy that I find in Switzerland. Also I need to gloat, and the other guy who is traveling with us has already posted three times on HIS blog so you know what THAT means. Blog Wars.

We are sitting pretty in a small town called Ruswil in Switzerland. Gazing not on alps but at least on the clouds and mist that cover the alps. If you can't see them at least it is comforting to know that you are looking at exotic alps hiding mist and not generic mist.

Luzern is amazing and people watching (always a highlight) was good the last few days because they are having Wild West something, somethings right now and there are a lot of tourist wandering around. Of course I am a tourist to them, and most likely my clothes are funny looking as well.

Our friends are quite hospitable, they feed us all the time and the Mother (Emmi) thinks that the boys are to thin and scrawny. And here they party into the night with lots of games and laughter.

My very own short...

2010-07-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is part of a short story I wrote this spring.

Lacing her fingers she placed them against her forehead as if that would help block the hard sun which bounced off everything, causing even bones to ache with the sharpness of it. Lungs-full of searing air came and went like so many small deaths, each one rippling in and out, not really wanted but needed. Above her head stretched the vault of blue, but an unkind blue, a blue like one that had been painted many years ago in a house only to turn out to be a bad choice, and one that with time, only became more dingy and ugly.

Walking forward across the hard ground her eyes took in the landscape yet again. For the hundredth, no the thousandth time. She was born in it and would die there, yet still it appeared strange and harsh. The landscape consisted of bare rocks on a stretching plain, which then crashed into mountains that hung over it like sentries, guarding and repressing. All around was dry, deep dry, horribly dry, shatteringly dry. Dust swirled to meet the hot horizon then sped on fierce winds to pound into each structure and person in it’s path, chipping away slowly at the world. Sand sifted into everything, piling in the streets and blanketing the houses. As she pressed her fingers through her hair, its rough, parched length caught at the cracks in her thumbs and hung there like spider webs, and every muscle ached with what was known as water pains. Not that there had been water in her time or even in her mother’s time. It lived only in the tales old people told. The stories said “once there had been an abundance of water; once all had been green; but now no longer”.

It had been taken away to protect them. Water had been the problem; it had caused wars or the rumors of wars, even dividing households, and there was no controlling it. It just came springing up, overflowing dikes, and where it wasn't a wild torrent, it just seeped into everything. So They had removed it, slowly stopping the flow meanwhile assuring the people this was for their well being. That they had come up with a much better method of getting and retaining in the body the life giving liquid.. And so over time people became used to seeing it less. The landscape changed, and the new generations that were born didn't know the difference. The people changed as well, growing old before their time with skin that was dusty even when clean, eyes grayed and shadowed with a blankness that could not be removed. And the few old, oh so very old, who still remembered when the last of the water had been, shook their heads and sighed. But of course they never voiced too loudly the memories that resided within.

Every year there was a high day, a celebration that ended with all being given a small bottle of water, perhaps an ounce worth, from which they took one sip, and then (to symbolize that it wasn't needed anymore) the remainder was poured out on the ground. For a moment one might think about swallowing the rest, but the girl had never known anyone to actually do it. The tales of those who had were dark. They would come and with a nonchalance which made it all the more frightening, remove the water drinker, and the offender would never to be heard from again. Even more frightening were the strange times when out of the ground a little spring of water would come bubbling up as if glad to be released. But that was dealt with swiftly, strange machines were brought in, concrete poured and that piece of land sealed off for five years. If there was a village near it to bad, the people were evicted without even the chance to gather much of what they possessed. With the price of trespassing afterwards, death.

Sitting on a rock to rest, the girl rubbed her hands up and down it, feeling it grit beneath her fingers. The wind blew and more grit coated her body, gray layer upon gray layer. Tilting her head forward, she gazed at the ground with an intentness bordering on anger, whispering, “Let the water come back, oh let it come back, even if it caused wars and troubles, let it come back.” Silence followed that whisper, then her eyes caught the first change in color, the soil looking a deeper brown, and the brown was spreading. Jerking upright, she knew somehow that this was water. Shuddering, she wondered what she had called forth aware that this would cause pain and suffering for her whole village. Futilely she scrabbling to cover up the water, throwing rocks on it burying it under. But at the same time a kernel of wonder in her mind tormented her with the desire to drive her hands into it, to bring the wet mud to her face and breath in the scent. Who knew that water had a smell? The old people had never mentioned that. Sharp, spicy, sweet, the smell of life or perhaps the smell of death? Which was it? Standing up and stepping back, she stared at the pile of rocks, at death and life. If she touched it, they would find out. They always did and that would bring death, but would that be real death? Was it real life she was living? Did those who drank that full measure of water know full life for a moment? Suddenly, a dry chuckle trickled from her throat and bending over she began to toss aside the rocks, then gently laid her hands on the water dampened spot. Slowly her body relaxed and she sunk her hands in and dug down sending showers of sand up all around her, digging and digging

After a time she felt eyes on her, and stopping, she looked up, catching sight of a man standing and watching. Tilting back her head so as to look him in the face, she said, "I didn't expect you so soon, Usually it takes two hours for you to sense the coming of water." The man looked at her and didn't speak for a time, and then replied, "But you see I am the keeper of the waters. I know where all my waters are and where they go. This one could not come if I did not send it. Child, do you want more water?" At this question, she blinked and stared. More water,? Want more water? Who could give water? Rather tentatively her answer came "Yes, sir... yes, I want more water. Even if that means death, please give me more water". Reaching out, he grasped her hand and lifted her up. Then stepping into the damp sand, he spread wide his arms and called to the water, called it forth from the ground, and with a joyous shout it burst upward. Out of the split rock, it poured and from all around it came, bubbling and singing vibrant water. Catching her eye, his twinkled in return "I think we need a little more don’t you?" A murmur which came from the very bones of the earth soared into song, then to a choir of sound, and from the mountains there burst a cascade of pure water that spilled down it's face, shouting it's triumph to the sky. Spinning the girl made ready to run, exclaiming that she must find her family, must bring them to this glory. They too must find the water. But the man, throwing back his head laughed and laughed, a sound that infused the world and her very soul with golden light. Then taking her hand once more, he said, "So little one, I will come with you to make the journey easier." ..................................................................

Pass The Door Please?

2010-02-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

What does one do when confronted by that question?

I laugh.

Not because it is funny, oh no. But because I'm thinking of my co-worker Larry (who is also the guy asking the question) he is trying his level best to train us girls in the way of the door. To get us to a point when we could confidently sell it to an unsuspecting customer with enough knowledge for it to be the correct door for them to purchase. However on the pop quiz tonight I promptly burst into laughter and the Door Sansei gave me an F on the class. Oh well, my long term goal was to be a bag lady anyway.

There is a list of questions that, if they are asked in the right manner and in the right order, apparently will open up the soul of buyer to you. Then acting rather like a psychologist gently nudging a patient towards a reconciliation with his mother, we ease them around to the perfect door. Always keeping in mind though they must think THEY are making the move, getting the bargain and are brilliant.

Catalogs are not the answer, that is as good as telling them to go some where else to buy the product.

Sell what you have.

Where are you going to use it Sir?

Do you want a window Sir?

Half lite or Half lite vented Sir?

Metal clad Sir?

Hollow core Sir?

Interior or exterior Sir?

Shaker Sir?

Modern Sir?

Traditional Sir?

And that is just a few of the questions you might have to ask, we didn't even tread to far into the french doors, 2 panel 6 lite, 2 panel flat or fire rated. Already though things are a bit shaky a mist is coming up before my eyes, the world grows strange.... Ok perhaps this is just the need for sleep and really, this isn't that much information to memorize and regurgitate. I'll just be having a sales guy check any orders I make for the next year or so.

Job

2010-01-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

As the door swung open to my touch it passed through my mind once again that perhaps this was not the best idea. Sure we needed the money but....Well a commitment was a commitment and the sooner started the sooner over. Entering the seemingly cheerful space the first thing I noticed was a smiling lady behind a desk, she was apologetic at being there, and informed me that it was just fine to work around her. Everything was just fine, but if this were an Alfred Hitchcock film... snap out of it! For pities sake your going to be fainting or wigging out here. But the very atmosphere breathed....something. Elusive, almost like one could hear the cries of what?

Moving quickly down the hall to the far room my compatriot and I removed the cleaning utensils from their storage areas, divided the chores between us and commenced to scour. As the trash cans were emptied there was a worrying amount of trash, where did it all come from? What were they doing? Wads of paper towels, surgical gloves....masks. Dark things were indeed afoot. Dashing sweat from my brow and muttering, "old wives tales, what they use to scare children, dentist aren't REAL" I scrubbed harder and faster, intent on escaping the doomed place as quickly as possible.

In one of the rooms I discovered a block of wood in the shape of a tooth. Who could mock the noble tooth in such a manner? Surely they knew they were walking the fine line of death for it? Gazing around at the strange instruments with so many hoses and odd chairs my toes began to shiver and it worked it's way up my body. These barbarians! Rushing through the building dragging the many trash bags I cried to my partner to hurry and finish. Crashing into the door that led to the last room, my hand scrabbled for the handle made slick with the tears that slid down my cheeks. Yanking it open the horror of what lay before us stayed our hands and feet.

Walls lined with teeth grinned at us like so many pearls. The floor covered in a fine grit made, we could only surmise, from pieces ground off other helpless teeth. Bluebeards chamber indeed. These teeth were obviously taken from patients who were wiggly or screamers, as we had heard they usually let the silent ones go. Clutching hands we moved in and surveyed the carnage, laying higgly piggly on the counter where more teeth and more dust. And from the walls the soundless cries came, "stay, do not enter here, flee, save your teeth, saveeee them".

So turning as one we walked in a deathly calm from the room hand in hand, never looking back.

Life and Death

2010-01-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

Did I post this already? Probably, but who is going to remember....

Philippians 1:21-22
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on
living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.”

This thought is mind boggling in its simplicity, it explains to us how we are to live....and die. The life I am living in this body is one that God has called me to live and it is for Christ
that every day I wake up, breath and work, doing fruitful labor for
him. But the day that I don't wake up and breath will be a day of
rejoicing, a day of gaining. In every aspect of our lives this thought should be present, that we
have nothing to fear from life or death. The life we live in the body is
for Christ. Every situation in the day, setting the table, cleaning
showers, working, reading and playing we are to live for
Christ doing fruitful labor for him. And in death we as Christians are
going to gain, because we are go to be with the one we love.
God desires us to live each day as though it was today that we are going
to die, this is our last day to share his love with those around us,
especially to those who are spiritually dying. We are not to fear death
but understand how close it is to us. And that thought should give us
a more powerful desire to do fruitful labor for Christ.

This quote from Amy Carmichael is rather thought provoking, " I would rather burn out (for Christ) then rust out". She said that when someone told her she needed to slow down or she was going to burn out. To me it speaks like Hebrews 12:1-3 "I would rather run the race, pick up my cross and burn out for Christ. Rather then go along sedately and safely and rust out".

Hebrews 12:1-3 says
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who
endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary
and lose heart”.

This is the key to how we are to live for Christ, throwing off
everything that hinders, fixing our eyes on Him, following in his
footsteps. Dying to self and our desires picking up our crosses and
following him. If we are running with perseverance then we won't have
time to be selfish, grow weary or lose heart. And He will give us the
strength that we need to throw off everything that hinders.

My question is "What is it in your life that hinders you"?

Zombies....

2010-01-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

Don't even ask why I'm writing this.

Zombies *shudder* apparently are believed to be the reanimated dead or a mindless human being. Now if I was to write a post on the second definition it would have to propound that most teenagers are zombies. But I'm not so we'll leave the poor angsty teens alone, they're all huddled up in a corner mooning over Edward, or texting anyway.

Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Voduo, which told of the people being controlled as laborers by a powerful wizard or a bokor.

It also would appear that zombies main source of food is.. humans...oh my! Forget the dumb cougars (maybe in the city this isn't a fear, however up north it is something to be aware of) picking off the kids in the backyard, start checking for zombie tracks. Which probably look like normal human foot prints, just the staggering, mindless kind, with perhaps the odd body part laying along side. However now zombies are not depicted as thralls to masters, rather, modern zombies are portrayed in mobs, flocks or waves, seeking either flesh to eat or people to kill, and are typically rendered to exhibit signs of physical decomposition such as rotting flesh, discolored eyes, and open wounds, and moving with a slow, shambling gait. They are generally incapable of communication and show no signs of personality or rationality, though George Romero's zombies appear capable of learning and very basic levels of speech as seen in the films Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead (I'm sorry, but if you read the italicized portion carefully we appear to have a complete description of teens) so give up any idea you had of reasoning with them.

In my limited research there doesn't seem to be a set idea about how one would go about protecting ones self from a zombie. None of the normal deterrents were cited like salt, garlic or lanolin (really there was nary a mention of any of them). So I've come up with my own list.

Deep Zombie Off. I know this is out there, in some lab a geek has created a zombie spray.

Bazookas.

Tanks.

Turkeys. It is a little known fact that Zombies hate turkeys and will do anything to get away from them.

Last but not least.

The Atomic Bomb. This however might have the side effect of producing some other bizarre group of beings due to radiation....and I'm not even going to go there.

So are there really zombies? Do we have to be ready for ‘em? Well, actually I think you meet them every day. Repeatedly. That is if you are a Christian who is meeting people who are not in Christ Jesus. Because all who aren’t saved through His blood are lost, all who haven’t been raised to life are dead. Ergo the living dead.

They are moving about, but are spiritually dead, their souls are bound in the chains of sin, bound to a bokor and that bokor is Satan. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”. And no, salt, garlic and lanolin won’t help here either, but, the ministry of reconciliation will. In fact it will set them free. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them, And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”.

And again “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus”.

So watch for those zombies and take every opportunity to share the reconciliation of Jesus Christ with them.

To Love......

2010-01-09T06:47:00.000-08:00

"Compassion is love in action".

com.pas.sion sympathy, to feel pity, sorrow for the sufferings or trouble of another or others, accompanied by an urge to help; deep sympathy; pity.

This little motto was on our fridge for years and I didn't really think much about it until I started working as a CNA. Then it came home with full force. Here you are doing for a human the most intimate things, the personal chores of every day that one normally takes for granted. Like brushing teeth and hair, bathing and going to the bathroom. But old age and disease make it imperative they have assistance, and some unknown person is there to help. But what if that person is thinking to much of themselves to really offer the help? Perhaps they're there doing the action but in their mind they are groaning over it, being grossed out by it, caught up in the job and not the person. So herein is where compassion comes into action and translates into love.

Actually working with the elderly gave me a glimmer of what Christ Jesus dealt with when he was on earth. Here is the elderly man or women the mind is breaking down therefore all the nasty angry things that are stored up in them are starting to come out. They don’t recognize you as helping them, they think you are trying to hurt them, so they bite at you, slap and pinch you, scream nasty things, throw tantrums and generally are hellions on wheel-chairs. Some are sweet, but that still never makes the job that wonderful to do. But to be of any real use to them you have to triumph over your reaction and be an ambassador of the love of Christ, expressed in kindness and gentle care that will perhaps break through the drug fog and old age.

Jesus Christ had the same people to deal with except he could see not only the outside but the inside as well, see clearly that they were sin filled, bickering, angry humans. The days I’ve had to deal with one human who has no self restraint and lets all their sin come flowing out is a bad day, I feel like I’ve been scrubbed with sand paper and banged up and down on rocks for a while. And I would wonder what it was like for Christ, who day in and day out walked among those for whom he set aside his Godhood to help, with loving kindness he cared for his people who didn’t even recognize him as helping them. This sin, the disgusting, abhorrent, vile, depraved, ugly, sin, was lade bare before him, but he didn’t flinch or draw back, but went forward, loved, touched, and healed. Speaking gentle words and appt rebukes he has compassion on those he came to save. Such compassion that he goes to the cross, laying down his life, he took the sin that was not his own and bore it, so that in him we might have life!

So take this as an encouragement, the power of Christ in you is the same power that carried him to the cross and raised him to life. You too can rise up and have victory, you too can love and have gentle compassion on those whom there is not outside reason to love. And also as a rebuke (I speak to myself as much as anybody) don’t think more highly of yourself then others, don’t get caught up in the me-monster, lay down your life and take up your cross daily. Calling on Christ power to sustain you, so not by your strength but his, you gain the victory.

DOWN WITH BOOKS!

2010-01-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

For the love of &@#$ save our forests! It is just sickening watching majestic trees crash to the ground, to see their grand beauty twisted and smashed, and to know that their final destination is being turned into books.

Yes books! Ah but how can I, an avid bibliophile and pursuer, purchaser and gloating owner of books, propound an argument against my own true love? Well I’ll try and explain, perhaps I’ll do it with stammering fingers and little eloquence but hopefully with a touch of drama and sparkle.

TO BEGIN, DOWN WITH BOOKS THAT ARE:

TRASH: come off it, if I dumped a bag of six day old garbage on your floor, you would think I was a little strange. And if that was the ONLY thing I could think to bring you, you would think I was insane. Is trash writing the only thing YOU bring to the table?

POORLY WRITTEN: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

BOOKS LACKING IN ALL THAT MAKES A BOOK GOOD: That is pretty broad I know but there are not a few shining examples of such literature in our world. The Babysitters Club for one...*shudder*... or almost any of the “tweeny” or “teen” books out there, plus the greater part of the adult fiction as well. Plot lines that have been done a billion times before, cookie cutter characters, mutilated English....and so much more.

DRIVEL FILLED: This is huge in the “Christian” section. Sappy, ludicrous and down-right idiotic for the most part, this genre should quietly fade out of the picture, like an aging soap star. Actually the really ugly bit here is, Christians should be the ones writing wonderful, inspired and beautiful books, not just so much mush and poppycock.

OVER SEXED AND UTTERLY UNINTERESTING: I’ve thrown away two books this year for being this very thing. If an author has to revert to overt sex and “bribe” the reader into staying with the book that is a good sign that you should burn or chuck the book. Besides the glaring rule of “whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy think about such things...”. Not to mention usually those books are so boring they will constantly be suffering from water damage due to sleep induced drooling.

HISTORICAL FICTION THAT: Claims to speak, behave, think, relate and act as the person in their chosen time period would have, only to ignore completely all social norms and actions that character would have had. In short, superimposing a modern day mind set on them and forcing it to be a mouth piece for the authors chosen soap box.

These my friends are a few key problems with the books being written by my generation, in my not so humble opinion. And it really burns me up at the thought of all those poor trees pouring into mills to be turned into so much refuse, sadly it would be of more use to humanity if they were just turned into paper towels or something.

Just stalk into your local Mac-Bookstore, glance around, glistening and shiny covers gawp at you from ever shelf, ninety percent were written in a week and will be read and forgotten even faster, whole series that didn’t exist three days ago spring like cockroaches from the pens of would be authors. Each eager to out do the other in the baseness of material or characters there in. Quite frankly I can’t even NAME any of these books since.....I make it a point of never reading, buying or touching them.

Fear Not.

2009-10-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

The whole "fear not" concept is a bit hard for me to grasp. There are so many things to fear; death, life, loosing sleep, torture, murder, houses burning down, car wrecks, gaining weight, cancer, drowning, and the list goes on.

But one of the big ones right now is the fear that the life as we know it is passing away, our economy is going down the tubes, the USA is going to hell is a dump truck and soon "tortured for Christ Jesus" might be a true statement to make about many Christians in the US. And boy if only we could get back to the old days it would be better, way back in the fifties, yeah back then when.....the stage for the sixties was being set, unjust wars were being fought, peopled divorced one another, murder, rape and car wrecks were happening. Well perhaps even further back would fix it, past the Civil War and back to when our country began, everything was perfect then right? Well at least car wrecks weren't a big deal but all the other horrible things were still happening, our founders weren't perfect and nor were the rest of the people.

So is there a time period that I should look at and wish I lived "back then"? Is there a time when people were, as a whole, more holy or righteous? Well I submit that there is not. Perhaps there was a time when justice system was run more correctly, or the leaders had an upright and godly view of life and their part in it. But was that real peace or holiness? Or just a slightly more buttoned down society? Has the intrinsically being of man changed? No, it hasn't and nor has the way of life or the horribleness sin and it's effect on people. So if Bible speaks true to every generation from Adam to mine and they were told not to fear with the same things going on in their world, then I too should be able to cling to that and take strength in it.

Also even if our world collapses, shifts and changes MY JOB DESCRIPTION DOESN'T CHANGE!

I am to act as an ambassador for Christ, as if God were making his plea through me.

I am to shine the light of Christ.

I am to work with my hands and have something to share.

I am to take care of the widows and the orphans.

And I am to glorify God in all I do or say.

So there is hope for our nation, and it is the true hope, the hope of a new life in Jesus Christ. Sure if our world was more under control, abortion wasn't rampant, and crimes were punished, it would be nice. But if it isn't because people are controlled by the Holy Spirit, but by good laws well executed, the battle is still being lost, because that means people are still going to hell. The goal is salvation, not a perfect government. And the way only thing that can change a nation is the individuals heart being made new.

Also I as a twenty five year old shouldn't curl up in my shell and hide, and dream just doom and gloom and assume that life is over. No, take hope, trust in God, marry, have kids, and rejoice.

I will be honest....

2009-06-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

You are ugly.

You are ugly.

You are ugly.

You are ugly.

With your fat hanging out, you are ugly. With pants that are to tight or to low, you are ugly. By wearing your PJ's in public you are ugly. By not washing your hair or taking a bath you are ugly. Through wearing a shirt that is to low you are ugly. With a sculptured shirt that shows every bulge you are ugly.

You are ugly.

You are ugly.

You are ugly.

You are ugly.

Don't get me wrong I want to be loving to you, so that is why I'm telling you the truth. Dressing slutty or in an extremely tacky manner doesn't make one lovely, in fact it does the apposite, causing you to look cheap and (perhaps worse is most girl's minds) fatter then you actually are. So please don't be a sheep, ignore the poptarts, the glitzy stars, instead dress to suit your body type, dress with quite style, with restraint, with true fashion. Wear things that aren't to tight, to low and just plain ugly, just because it is the fashion doesn't mean it's smart or lovely.

But.

Perhaps your heart is ugly as well. That is something to think about. Have you ever? If you are beautiful on the outside but black and diseased within what use is the outside? What about when you walk into eternity, will it do you much good if you are perfect as a model? What, or who, will help you?

I have the answer.

But it isn't one for those who don't want to give their lives away, who don't want to give up "me" and give in to Him. Who wish to save their lives but in the end will loose them.

Sooner or later death comes to us all, if he is coming for you now are you prepared to meet him? Are you ready to stand in God's presence (because you surely will) and be called to account? Who will you call upon to stand before you so God's righteous wrath isn't poured out on your head? Is Jesus Christ, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, your defender and cleanser?

Be honest, are you a "good" person? A holy person? A clean and pure person? These are the most important questions so, please don't lie....ooops....right there is sin sneaking out. If you aren't fully honest in answering these questions you are already sunk. Have you ever lied? Stolen (a pen, a paper clip...a cookie)? Lusted? .... .... .... ... ... ... ... ...

If you have done any of these things then you are a Grade A sinner, committed to eternity in hell unless otherwise reprieved. And that reprieve can only come through Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God, who came to earth as a man, lived a sinless life, was crucified on the cross, died and rose again three days. He lives on in heaven and offers salvation to all who call on His name and confess their need for a savior.

Salvation, now isn't that a beautiful word?

If you want to know more about Jesus Christ and His love for you read the book of John in the New Testament. It is worth taking a few hours over.

The Scarlett Letter

2009-04-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

WARNING, these are semi-unpolished thoughts, and if you love this book I would ask that you explain why if you feel led to make a comment.

Hawthorn created two of the most benightedly annoying people in the characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Or possibly two of the most sadly confused and blinded people as to the God both are supposedly serving. They both sin, and one is discovered and one not. The whole story is built around this theme, one is in the open, accused and confessed, the other hidden, un-accused and unconfessed.

Hawthorn gets right the need for confession and repentance, perhaps even public repentance, but he misses (purposefully?) the wonderful truth of God, that once you have confessed and repented, you are forgiven. If it is true Godly repentance that is. And from there it is not a static existence but a moving forward away from the sin, if it is something you have cast aside, then it is behind you, and ever further behind.

Hester’s remorse seems to me to have been real, she is deeply pained by what she did, and is determined to bear quietly and with patience the punishment that is dealt out to her by the City Fathers. Although she is at a loss to whom she should turn to for comfort, seeking not the Cross, but the brand on her chest to bear her up. And (graciously) she is also determined to suffer silently, she does not disclose the one who was her partner in sin but leaves it up to him to confess. Which he does not.

As for Arthur his self punishment leans on the physical, beatings and long nights spent in anguish. But he will not step forward and acknowledge his part in the adultery, he loves himself to much and her to little. Thinking of his position in the community, and having to great a pride to admit to sin, he is silent while she suffers.

Hawthorn speaks of Arthur's abilities to preach to, and have sympathy with, the common man, due somehow to his sin. As if this was his first and only sin, and that it gives him the power to teach eloquently and with passion.

However can powerful and great teaching come out of bad fruit? Can unconfused sin give birth to good fruit?

There is another twisted person in this tale, the husband of Hester, Roger Chillingworth. This gentleman has no compunction to help Hester or even forgive her. Angry and bitter, he admits in a moment of self-truth that he should not have married her, since she is so much younger then he. And neither does he look with pity on her for having to live with the uncertainty of his death, due to not arriving in America after he sent her ahead from England, and then getting captured by Indians when he does arrive. He is only angry and determined to exact revenge on the man who got her pregnant. Forgoing his marriage vows he repudiates her, denying the relationship between them.

Discovering that it is Arthur he worms his way into Arthur’s life and then sneakily and nastily he turns up the heat of the self torment. Now I have to admit that this really didn’t bother me. In my opinion, that little snake deserved a good raking in private for what he wouldn’t take in public, and who better to not let Arthur get away with it then Hester’s husband? Except that he doesn’t do it out of love or a desire to right a wrong or turn someone from a crooked way, he does it retaliate. In a gruesome way he hides Arthur’s sin as well, and enjoys hiding it.

I find it bizarre that Hester at the end of the book actually considers running away with Arthur, what is up with that? The little runt lets her suffer for seven years alone....and when she tells him that Roger is her husband and is his tormenter, he is angry with her! Saying he will never forgive her for wronging him....WHAT? This is where you deck him and say, actually you’ll forgive HIM and walk away from his sniveling, blubbering form. But alas this is not what Hester does, they book a passage on a ship and agree to leave the next day, after he preaches one more time. But on his way out of the church he realizes he is dying, and in a belated attempt to rectify matters he climbs up on the scaffolding and admits to being Hester’s lover, then clutching his chest he dies, leaving Hester once again alone.

Maybe the point of Hawthorns book has escaped me, perhaps it was to show the sinfulness of man and that sin that can be hidden under a white washed wall, but inside are dead men’s bones. Or possibly he was trying to point out that self imposed punishment doesn’t cleans, or “be sure your sin will find you out...” or even “it is mine to avenge”.

But I find it frustrating that his characters talk the prettiest Bible language but don’t ever read the Bible, or finish the story. Yes there is sin, yes we all have sinned, but the Cross was for just such as these. Hawthorn draws people who “know” God, but then misrepresent His power. I know that not all come to know the Lord, not all are saved, this is reality, but for pities sake if you put Him in a book at least show one person meeting the life changing power of Jesus Christ crucified...unless of course you don’t believe in the cross, then by all means leave it out, but please leave out God as well, for you don’t rightfully know Him, and you should not speak of what you do not know.

Work

2009-04-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

I have learned things since starting work at the hardware store.

A: Guys do gossip, they just do it at the store while buying tools, or leaning against a truck.

B: If you sweep the store, for sure in two minutes a logger will come in with mud on his boots.

C: There are small yellow panic aliens that live in the YOX colorant, and they come out when things get rough.

D: At closing time someone will come in for either paint or plumbing.

E: I hate the screw and nail department, the most annoying things to look up in the computer.

F: You don't clean by "dusting" a hardware store, because that is just displacing it.

G: The overstocked plumbing parts get married and start having kids, if left alone in the back room.

H: Filing can be a soothing and comforting thing to do, it gives one a place to hide if one sold some guy the wrong things.

I: While waiting for the paint shaker to finish you can take a short nap or write a text.

J: The guys will grouch about cool coffee but not bad coffee....go figure.

Maybe I'll have a few more observations in a the next weeks, I'll keep going through the alphabet, kinda like those books about murders...eeeeekkkk....

I'm an Aunt....of sorts...

2009-01-23T17:43:00.000-08:00

A dear friend from Germany just gave birth to a little girl! Her name is Johanna Frieda Muller, and she is so CUTE....at least her adoring adopted Aunt thinks so. Just ignore the freakish yellow blanket and the fact that she is a wee bit red still....

Who are you?

2009-01-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

1. Who are the people who drive five miles below the speed limit (causing you in to pass them) while out of town..but when in town will go ten over the limit, and pass you?

2. Who are the people that dink through stop lights? What is the goal in giving the car in front of them fifty feet of room and making it so only two people make it through? Why do you do this to us?

3. Who are the people who think when at a four way stop they don't have to follow the rules?

4. Who are you that putter along but at 50 or 55 but as soon as a passing lane shows up you speed up to 65?

5. Who are you that ignore the lanes in parking lots, whipping around cars and driving across the lines, almost giving me a heart attack and smacking me?

6. Who are you that park lazy like, so as to take up two spots instead of one?

Would the people who do these things please stand up........thank you.....Now in view of our tolerant way of doing things these days, I'm not going to be to mean. I'm only going to take away your drivers license, break your keys, remove the transmission from your car, shave your head and tattoo on the back "I'm a road jerk" and give you a pass to the Grayhound Bus.

What can I say...

2008-12-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

Well there is no excuse except Facebook has stolen my life and I can't get out. The blame goes to J-girl she started it and tempted me to get on that time wasting site.

Rather like in the Fellowship, when they are stuck in the mines of Moria...and they can't get out...I too am stuck in Facebook, but that is more of my own desires and not the orks that are keeping me there.

So perhaps I need to take a break from all computer things, could I live without bloging, posting,wall writting, poking, skyping, emailing, downloading, chatting ext? Well, actually I did just that while staying with my Aunt for two weeks, however she didn't HAVE the internet so that can't count since there was no temptation.

But now I will challenge myself, starting on Monday no internetting will I do for one week. And Tiv will be my acounter and smack my hand if I slip.

Sigh, there won't be any excuse even for banking because I did that yesterday....

November 5th

2008-11-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Psalm 16
Keep me safe, O God,for in you I take refuge.

I said to the Lord, "You are my Lord;

apart from you I have no good thing."

As for the saints who are in the land,

they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those will increase

who run after other gods.

I will not pour out their libations of blood

or take up their names on my lips.

Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;

you have made my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;

even at night my heart instructs me.

I have set the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the grave,

nor will you let you r Holy One see decay.

You have made known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

A Gentle Kind Religion

2008-11-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

On October 20th, just before 8:00am the Taliban militia shot and killed Christian aid worker, Gayle Williams as she walked to work.

Her heinous crime? Spreading Christianity.

The Taliban claims reponsibility for her death, "Our [leaders] issued a decree to kill this woman," spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the Associated Press. "This morning our people killed her in Kabul."

Gayle Williams was part of a British charity group called SERVE Afghanistan, she worked with disabled Afghans for two years, directing projects to integrate the disabled into mainstream education. She was 34 years old.

Opera

2008-10-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Perhaps opera is not for all......in fact opera might be only for the few. Unless it is The Phantom of the Opera, which has, it would seem, a cult following, if the packed lines and sold out seating was anything to go by. We had to weave our way through the heard and up the stairs for our seats, me burbling away singing "shove, shove, shove" until a girl snippily told me I "could ask nicely", sheesh if I had been on my toes I would have said "young lady I have not yet begun to shove!" or used a well placed German phrase (no Jordan not chinking German).

Just so you know HOW hard core we are, Hannah bought the tickets back in June, she got almost a whole row, and we had been gloating over the tickets for months, polishing them and keeping them safe in cotten wool and strong boxes.

As the burble of voices and a view of the stage finally magnified for me that we were truely there, I was so excited that the only way to control it was to burst into song (which could be argued as a lack of control). Then upon remembering where I was, promptly shut up, the lady sitting next to me wasn't of our party and I didn't want to scare her....to much.

How to discribe it, the diming of the lights, the first voice breaking the silence, "Ladies and Gentlemen"......from then on out entranced and caught up in the opera we were. And when that chandelier went up and the story which I've listened to over and over again visually came alive and it was corking.

The music is wonderful, Frank Loyd Webbers genius is clearly marked here, the soaring strains dark tones and flirty, joval notes fit together to make a glittering and engaging performance. The cast and props where also well done, however I must admit that Sarah Brightman getstop billing in my books. No one can take the place of that clear and pristine voice, which seems almost impossibly lovely.

Most likely I'll never do it again, but for that one short time, it was worth it. To feel like we were back a hundred years or so, pre TV and movies, and opera and plays were THE entertainment, made it even more enjoyable.

If a blog dies....

2008-10-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

Well I was expecting a few more worried comments due to my extented absence from the blog world. Perhaps a few tears, my blog name on a milk jug and other measures to find out what was going on.

But no, sadly my readership it turns out, could care less why I dropped off the globe for one month. What is the world coming to when ones own chums regard you in a caviler light, here today gone tomorrow. Bitter, bitter is this for me to face....

Oh well, it is suffice to say I was in North Carolina on a surprise trip to help my Aunt who had been in the hospital with a horrible appendicitis. It was a two and a half weeks sans internet, as she doesn't have any and we never got to the library. NC is rather warmer then here and humid all the time, to me it smells rather funny, possibly the mold growning everywhere? Plus they have snakes (we don't) and more black-widows then we do, shudder, I was fine walking in the woods until sitting down to dinner one night Aunty and her friend told snake stories. Apparently our next-door neighbor had been bit on the foot just the week before by a baby Copperhead akkkk! So into the woods no longer did I go.

Much of my time was spent reading, since there wasn't much on TV ever (1000 chanels). Since my literature class is reading Nicholas Nickleby I thought I should as well, it is long but quite good, one of Dickons lighter and happier stories.

I finished Ordinary Women, Extrordinary Faith, the auto biography of Patricia St. John. She was a British missionary nurse for many years in Morocco, as well as a prolific author. Her childrens stories are much loved by our family at least and are known all over the world, if you haven't read any of them you are missing out. Here is a list of her childrens books (the ones in bold I've read).

Treasures of the Snow
The Tanglewood’s Secret
Rainbow Garden
The Secret at Pheasant Cottage
Star Of Light
Where The River Begins
Three Go Searching
The Secret Of The Fourth Candle
Stories to Share
Nothing Else Matters
The Runaway
I Needed A Neighbor
Twice Freed
The Secret Boat

Find them and read them.

Other then going to the ocean (very warm, no sharks) for a day nothing to exciting happened, flights were good if uneventful , except for on kicking child and a girl who tipped her cup of Pepsi onto my bare feet (Sterling said it could have been worse...could have been beer).

I'm happy to home back to cold, fallish North Idaho.

They Be One

2008-09-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

Donzel B. Woomert was married to Markus Wermelinger on August 31 2008. Before God, our friends and the State of Idaho they are now joined together for life. It was duly witnessed and signed by Schyler and myself.

All in all the wedding was lovely, we broke a few ceremony norms such as no ugly, expensive dresses for the brides-maid and instead of the groom standing up front waiting for the bride, Donzel waited for HIM. Both our parents stood there with her and gave her away, Dad spoke on the Cross and our dear friend Dave on Love and Marriage.

Our church family was wonderful, the ladies brought tons of good food (fruit and veggies) and arranged it in a lovely fashion. While some of the men seemed to have a fantastic time grilling the sausages Markus picked out to have (that's the Germanic, sausage loving side of him). And we had our very own band play all the music, ahem, it was made up of two of our very own home-schooling families, with a special trumpet player from down south thrown in.

Grandma Ginger came from Oregon and worked as the coordinator, arranging flowers and chairs.

The rest of us just pitched in as needed, the boys pulling long stints as chair haulers and Grandpa working as a helper with the flowers and chairs as well. Mom, sailed through with flying colors and dear Michelle was a steadfast rock in a sea of marriage plans.

But most of all it was God who gave Donzel and Markus and the day to us. Controlling the weather was something we couldn't do but He can, so the rain was kept away and the sun brought out to grace the outdoor wedding. And the day was made joyful because of the God we serve.

Of Weddings and Plans

2008-08-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

In days of old there was a quiet ceremony with the parents, pastor and perhaps the neighbors or close friends. Afterwards a wedding breakfast was taken, then the bride and groom went off to start their lives together.

Or perhaps slightly more Appalachian style an all day party with dancing, fiddling and long tables groaning with food. After the bride and groom had gone home, their friends would follow them and caterwaul outside the cabin until they were let in.

Simple pleasures.

In later day America things are slightly different, a guest list 100 to 900 families strong, a full meal with starters, drinks and desserts. Served in lavish homes, gardens, hotels or massive tents on lawns. Dancing, music, games, gifts stacked up to the ceiling and demands for money are the norm. As soon as a wedding is noised abroad every women who knows the bride (and some who don't) rush to her side to assure her that this is her big day. The happiest one of her life. And if her friends don't cement this in her pea-brain, the bridal companies sure do.

Thousands of dollars spent on the dress, are matched only by the amount that the brides-maids are requested to spend on an ugly dress they will wear only once. One which will cause the guests and future photo album flippers to gasp in horror and mutter "what was she thinking? It makes them look...fat". Which then starts the small dark doubt fermenting in their minds that, perhaps, she meant them to look that way..... oh oh.

So the flowers, colors, cute children, suits, dresses, rings, table clothes, food, ribbons, lights, candles, music, candy, table settings, guest lists, pictures and perfect spot are picked out, the bride broke down only twice, things are a go. For Her Big Day. The groom is almost a non player in this event, sneeking in at the front he hides behind a huge display of flowers so as not to attract attention to himself and mar the grand entrance of Her.

Why do we spend so much time on the day, when the marriage isn't about the day at all? That's like saying the day after you give birth is The Day, after that everything goes down hill. I would like to put forth we've go the wrong end of the stick, it isn't a day, but a lifetime together, this is one day out of, hopefully, many. Sure this is the biggest party that will be thrown for you and the most money you'll ever spend solely on yourselves, but if this is the best part of your life, this 24 hours, I think I'll stay single.

For the Christian though our view of marrage is different or at least should be. God gave marriage to the peoples of the earth because He saw it was good, and it represents Christ and His bride. A picture that is beautiful and amazing, but one that gets lost in the noise and commotion over the bride and groom. Christ Jesus is a guest that gets invited last to most weddings and is simply forgotten at others.

I'm not saying don't celebrate, by all means celebrate, this is a joyous time and our God loves joy, David danced before Him and God was blessed. So on the 31st of August we will dance before God and thank Him for bring Markus and Donzel together for a lifetime. The celebration will encompass not only their joy as a couple but our joy as friends and family witnessing the outworking of His hand in their lives. Giving praise and honor where it is due, and the cord that is Christ Jesus' blood will bind us tighter that day and in the days to come.

Die Fledermaus

2008-08-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

The soft sounds of sleep and slumber were broken by a strange scratching and scraping, I looked towards the windows and saw something fly between them and the moon. Something dark....and winged....I was, to say the least, slightly startled and flicking on my light, jumped from bed, grabbed a rolled up magazine and prepared to swat the intruder.

Horrors, the thing was swooping and flitting about without a sound, we quickly gave up on the idea of it being a extra giant moth-on-steroids and identified it as a BAT. Que: yelps and frantic waves of weapons. And darn it all if the bat didn’t make a pass into our room and, as Tivoli put it later, 'it’s huge, black wings were at least six feet wide and blocked out all light' or something like that.. Michelle Shook was no help at ALL when I looked over at her she was quivering under the blankets, Tivoli did go get a tennis racket but by then the bat had hid behind a chair. Great, now it was time to go get help, I didn’t think I could deal with this right after waking up. Also Michelle pointed out that 'don’t bats have rabies?'.

So into the house we headed looking for a strong armed Schyler. Well we found him. But after I told him that we had a vampire bat in our room he only mumbled something about getting a bag and some towels. After gathering them up we waited in the kitchen for him...and waited....and waited...Mom came down and asked what in the world was going on and we promptly told her. She came out with us instead of Schyler because it would appear that he had never really been awake in the first place. Mom went and sat in the dark with the screens out of the windows and waited for it to fly away but it didn’t no hide nor wing of it to be seen...oh great.....Then home came Donzel and Markus from Spokane and in the middle of helping them unload the car Mom saw the bat flying around down-stairs. EEEEeekkkk.

It ended up flying to a dark corner and clinging to the door frame. Mom told Markus to take a tennis racket and get him (she meant bonk him on the head) and Markus gently and deftly caught it between two rackets and let him go. Rather the anti-climax to the wild half hour before. Except this morning Schyler didn’t remember any of it.

Little Green Sticky Notes

2008-08-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

While on a four day drive home from Texas I discovered little-green-sticky-notes, when one is driving between 17 and 60 mph for 2881 miles, things tend to get a wee bit boring. An these puppies stick really well to dashboards.

To kick it off I wrote the first one just to remind myself what we do when driving through Oklahoma City.

Stay in the middle and on 35.

And the rest explain themselves.....I hope.

When driving alone and slowly, knee driving is possible and a must, if one wishes to open her peanuts.

I like NPR, it might be left leaning but it has interesting news and the music is fun. I'm a Granola Conservative!

Wal-Mart, hate the place, plactic everywhere.

McDonalds, I don't like them anyway but last time they stole my French Fries.

Did you know if you stand in a parking lot in Wyoming with a straw in a cup it will whistle?

WHO wrote the song The First Cut Is the Deepest? If I never heard that song again it would be to soon.

Horse Shoeing School in Oklahoma?

Yodeling!

1.3 Million Chinese forced to move out of their 2000 year old city to make way for a Dam.

Water Polo sounds quite amazing, check it out in the Olympics.

Gag.....Love Song...pish...

Hypothermia, this is a fear of mine while driving at 3:00 am with the air-conditioning on at full blast.

Because I Like It,! If I were to be the next Cooking star of TV this is what my program would be called. Sorry I only pander to myself, if you want 30 Minute meals go to a different chanel, healthy-shmelthy not here, you want some BAMB I don't dooo that.

Dickens is a word master, who else would discribe their character as "fine in his Beadle-hood".

OR

"She chucks me under the chin and makes all kinds of love to me"

Work Zones are good, that is the only time we went the speed limit.

Lemons

2008-07-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hmmm lemons, truly a most wonderful fruit.

Lemon Curd

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup lemon juice (about four medium lemons)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

The zest of two lemons (you grate the peel off, like cheese just smaller...in case you don't know what zest is:)

Press the egg yolks through a sieve (takes out any funny lumps or white bits) pour in the lemon juice, whisk, now add the sugar, whisk well again. Cook over medium/low heat for twelve minutes or untill the mixture can coat the back of a wooden spoon. Take off the heat, whisk till slightly cooled, add butter a slice at a time whisking after each (or just add the butter, sliced up, all at once whisking in well) now add the lemon peel.

Place in sealed glass jars in the fridge, eat on toast, pancakes, waffles, cookies, crackers, cakes or ummm anything. We don't normaly eat it warm but you can if you like.

For a lovely yummy wonderful lemon dessert, place lemon curd (after it has cooled) in a medium sized bowl. In another bowl beat 1 cup heavy whipping cream untill fluffy (don't let it be runny, but don't turn it into butter). Scoop a small amount of the whipping cream into the curd and stir in well (this makes it easier to fold in the rest), now place the rest of the whipping cream into curd and GENTLY fold it. DON'T WHIP OR BEAT IT, or your whipping cream (as I'm sure you know, will fall flat). Chill and serve in small bowls or eat on top of Angel Food Cake.

My dream.

2008-07-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Warm air brushed my skin, tall trees loomed over-head, green leaves huge and glossy twisted and turned catching the light. Grass was thick underfoot, broken here and there by hard packed dirt paths running this way and that. Turning I found a man standing beside me, small and slim he was my guide for what would seem to be a hike into the mountians. Mountains that I didn't remember wanting to visit.

My guide beckoned me around a bend in the path, urging me on, to see what we (must) have come to look at. Standing on the brow of the hill we gazed into a broad valley walled with steep green slopes and filled with huts perched on tall stilts, peaked roofs stretching toward the sky. Following the path as it twisted down to run past the first home I discovered the silence, it filled the air...utter silence, no birds, no people...no sounds. House upon house gazed back as if they were dead, the life in them snuffed out, gone, leaving nothing but walls and windows behind. Confussion filled me, a sharp pinpoint of fear and an overwhelming sadness.

Then it came to my ear, the sound of children calling, like the high thin piping of gulls the children called. Looking up into the house I saw a small boy and girl, both dark haired and browned skinned, crouched in a window, motioning for me to come closer, to entire. But my guide caught my arm and shook his head, "there are no children there anymore, nothing is there, only ghosts".

AGAIN the Markus COMETH

2008-07-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Once again my dear-almost-brother-in-law comes, this time it is a bit more solid, he had an interview with the US Embassy in Bern. After that they informed him he would recieve the Visa in about three weeks......sooo that means we might be able to have a wedding at the end of AUGUST. Which means.....something.....everyone must get busy....rush about doing wedding things......whatever they are....maybe we should make some practice cakes just to "see" if they taste good.....

Ahem if there is someone out there who KNOWS lot's about how the Maid of Honor is supposed to freak out please contact me, I'm going to need help on that one.

Oh JOY

2008-06-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Cheer of the week: Our room no longer smells like rotting, dead mouse. Are we happy? Are we excited? Are we actually spending time in our room again? YES, YES, YES!!!! It's true that it probably just fell down the wall into the lower part of the garage and then dried up, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that it is gone from our room, where we live, work, sleep and most of all breath.

London Telegraph

2008-06-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

This article by Jemima Lewis of the London Telegraph, I found quite interesting and a rather refreshing take on being a wife and mother. But most of all the line "There is something so illicit, so counter-cultural, about being an old-fashioned wife. Every time I tiptoe downstairs with the baby, so that the master can have his Sunday lie-in, I feel as naughty as if I were sneaking off for a midnight feast." makes me grin and I can only hope that someday, I too, might practice this wild and crazy lifestyle.

How I Score on the Marital Ratings Scale
by Jemima Lewis

It is a well-known fact that anything old relating to sex or marriage must be simply hilarious. So the rediscovery of a 1939 questionnaire designed to help men identify the perfect wife has caused predictable convulsions of merriment.

The Marital Ratings Scale was invented by an American agony uncle, Dr George Crane, who also had a sideline as a matchmaker. It gives positive and negative ratings to a variety of wifely behaviours, so that the woman in question can be placed on a scale ranging from “very poor” to “very superior”.

Going to bed with curlers in, for instance, will set her back by one “demerit”, as will shirking conjugal relations, failing to darn his socks, flirting with other men or wearing the seams of her stockings crooked. Having a “jolly” sense of humour, being a good hostess and conversationalist, putting the children to bed “personally” (rather than delegating to the nanny) and letting her husband sleep in on Sundays are qualities worth one merit each.

The American Psychological Association, which has republished the test, gives it this health warning: “Most people who read the test today find it humorous and obviously outdated.” Really? It seems to me a pretty accurate description of what most men still want from a wife. And, leaving aside the preoccupation with hosiery, it is not an unreasonable wish list. The ideal wife, it suggests, would be sociable, fun, intelligent, kindly, domesticated and good to look at. It might be asking a bit much that she should play the violin and dress for breakfast, but it never hurts to aim high.

Besides, if these desires are old-fashioned, so too are most marriages. No sooner has a woman stretched out her finger to receive the fateful sparkler than she is zapped back half a century, to a time when men were men and women were fragrant empresses of the domestic sphere. The day after he proposed to me, at the end of a holiday in Egypt, my husband leaned back into his aeroplane seat and gave a great sigh of satisfaction. “What a relief,” he declared. “Now I need never write a thank you letter again.” And despite my squeaks of outrage, so it has proved: I write the letters, remember the birthdays, maintain all those human relations that are assumed to be a wife’s “department”.

And if that seems a little retrograde, you should see what happens when you add a baby to the mix. The combination of exhaustion, breast-feeding and baby-love renders a new mother virtually housebound for months, during which time she absorbs, as if by osmosis, responsibility for the homestead and all who dwell in it. By the time she emerges back into the light, it is too late.

No one else will organise the babysitter, get the cat to the vet or stock the fridge, let alone make computerised lists of the holiday packing. I am luckier than some: my husband is as nifty with a saucepan as he is with a power drill. And I find it rather thrilling to unleash my inner hausfrau.

There is something so illicit, so counter-cultural, about being an old-fashioned wife. Every time I tiptoe downstairs with the baby, so that the master can have his Sunday lie-in, I feel as naughty as if I were sneaking off for a midnight feast. If I could just get my stockings straight, my marital rating would be off the chart.

The waste of trees

2008-06-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

Martha Stewert eh? Well ah think ah could write me a little home magazine jess as good as hers!

Opening article, talk about myself.

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Give advice on anything from cookies to marriage counseling....put chocolate in everything and don't on any terms redecorate with your spouse, the divorce court won't be far behind.

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Expound my wonderful home, which I keep revamping and up-dating, and repainting Oh and my laundry room is five hundred square feet, set up for optimum use with two washers and dryers.

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Write up how to best iron a shirt, never mind that any idiot who irons should know, start with the collar and sleeves. But the real nugget of information you glean from this is...legally you can watch a movie while ironing because it is "work" you are doing.

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Show pictures of my beautiful garden and casually throw out "my garden staff and I" before going on to rhapsodizing about planting ten thousand tulip bulbs. And insisting that with a little ingenuity YOU too could do this project.

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Nonchalantly explain that this week I'm throwing a dinner party for two hundred guests, and among those coming will be the Queen of England, George Clooney, Bono, Maria Carey, Joshua Bell and a Kennedy. Laugh lightly and continue on to say since my old leaded crystal wine glasses would be SO out of place at an outdoor dinner I decided to blow some new ones. And not just any old hand blown ones either, red ones, which includes adding real gold to the molten glass, as everyone knows, rich red tones only come when married to gold.

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Create an easy meal plan for the busy housewife:

Braised quayle roasted over an open fire and stuffed with shitaki mushrooms, tumric and chestnuts.

Arugula and spinach salad with wild blueberries, hand shelled pine nuts and a complicated dressing that includes fifteen different ingredients.

Slow roasted mashed potatoes, that MUST come from your own garden and dug up that morning, along with exotic wild garlic and Moroccan pepper.

Strawberries marinated in fine white sugar, balsamic vinegar and organic vanilla beans. Poured over whipped cream that has been folded into mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar.

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Write up some recipes that I stole from other people

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Talk about the books I'm writing, admonish everyone to rush out and buy them.

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Write long windedly on how if you have enough money you can do ANYTHING with your home. If you happen to be an antique dealer back east with a 1850s Salt Box house mores the better. Show what darling things people do with the odd diamonds and pearls they have laying about the place. Oh don't forget, now you can couple a Gorgian chair with a Queen Ann's table and no one will look askance. We are breaking down ALL norms in home decore dear.

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End with a short article on myself, and the chocolate cookie of the month. Advertise some more.

Things running through...

2008-06-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

My Mind

Who invented the stupid edge cutter on plastic wrap? One word Gggggrrrr.

Strangely enough, shopping at Costco is quite fun, golly, who wouldn't like pushing around a flatbed cart and buying enough victuals to feed an army?

I dislike Peter Pan, he needs a spanking.

Wal-Mart....shudder.

What's with the mice taking over our bedroom!

Cretin drivers in the parking lots, THERE ARE LINES FOR A REASON!

Penny thrillers, trashy romances and teen novels are the bane of our time. Go into a book store, gaze upon the rows of rubbish and think "the forests were cut down for this? Why didn't they just make toothpicks out of 'em?".

Have you ever walked into a store took a deep breath and thought "hhmm plastic!"?

I don't understand, why don't Producers make movies of the books they love, and leave the books WE love alone. Unless the books they love are to idiotic to make into films.

In polite society you are supposed to eat corn on the cob like a typewriter, from left to right, not around in a circle, but who made up that rule?

When will people who are concerned with overpopulation, offer to rub themselves out?

Things are a lot more interesting if you have a good book on tape.

James

2008-06-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heave but is earthly, unspriritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

BUT the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

Spring

2008-05-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

There are those of us up North that know spring is here when the bats in the roof start chattering and flying about. It bespeaks soft warm days, blue skies and the planting of big gardens. Another indication of sping is that the Chaco sandles come out and slip on feet, or people run bare-foot across grass growning long, and clothes are once again hung out on the line to dry, creating that oh so pleasent stiff, scratchy feeling as you pull on your jeans. Sour Cream Rhubarb Pies are made from fresh fruit pulled from the garden that very day. Hmmmmm.

Frisbee, Volly-ball, Visitors, Sleeping outside, Growing flowers, Filling humingbird feeders, Camp-outs, iced tea and rain. Spring is here finally, even if you can still see bombs and bombs of snow in the mountains and if we climbed high enough we could still ski.

Thank Goodness! I for one am happy to see winter go, it had been here a bit to long, over stayed it's welcome that is.

A letter

2008-05-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

Well praise the Lord Puschel's health is on the upswing, she has had no chemo for couple of months and is starting to recover. The prayer now is that no more cancer cells start to grow and that she will gain strength day by day. Here is a letter that she wrote on April 21st. Enjoy.

Today Puschel wrote by herself:

It would be great to take an hour where we could sing all together and share about the blessings God gave us in the past year and than thank Him for it. Because it is not possible each one of you could spend some time by your self and thank God individual. I know it is common to do so at newyear, but it does not harm you to do it in between. May you become tears in your eyes for HIS faithfulness and as the expression of thanks...Yesterday I went for the first time since the surgery horseback ridding on Saba (big Pony from my friend Lucia) - don’t worry I didn't go gallop.

That time I got tears in my eyes. I realized what God has done since the surgery. And even more I got to see His faithfulness that day, when I had the news from the Hospital in my hands. It was very clear written that none of the tests shows new Tumor cells. Oh, I am so thankful to God for the healing in my body until now, thankful that I am able to live again and additional to do my most favorite hobby again although I can't walk. Obviously the prayer is still for healing and no new tumor cells since I can get them faster again that the most of you. Thank you to God and to all of you, my dear friends!!

Hmmmm

2008-04-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in what is going on in Texas with the FLDS I would suggest getting this movie or watching it on line at http://www.liftingtheveilofpolygamy.com/

Read up on the Mormans, perhaps it isn't quite like it seems, not so much,"shiny happy people holding hands". There are darker, deeper and much sadder things going on in that church then they would want you to know.

Also here is an interview with an ex-FLDS women that would be good to read. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695274460,00.html

Or the book The God Makers, by Ed Decker and Dave Hunt.

And just for fun, one of the songs from the book, Gospel Principles, which I assume is sung and possible loved by Mormons everywhere. I base this assumtion on the fact that the Morman Tabernacle Choir sung it (found that at http://www.lyricsandsongs.com/song/662745.html).

PRAISE TO THE MAN

Praise to the man who communed with Jehovah! Jesus annointed that Prophet and Seer. Blessed to open the last dispensation, Kings shall extol him, and nations revere.

Chorus
Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven! Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain. Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren; Death cannot conquer the hero again.

Praise to his mem'ry, he died as a martyr; Honored and blest be his ever great name! Long shall his blood, which was shed by assasins, Plead unto heav'n while the earth lauds his fame.

Chorus

Great is his glory and endless his priesthood. Ever and ever the keys he will hold. Faithful and true he will enter his kingdom, Crowned in the midst of the prophets of old.

Chorus

Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven; Earth must atone for the blood of that man. Wake up the world for the conflict of justice. Millions shall know "Brother Joseph" again.

Chorus
Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven! Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain. Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren; Death cannot conquer the hero again.

And all God's people said....WHAT? Last time I looked Jesus Christ holds the keys, Revelation 1:17-18, last time I read history J. Smith himself was preparing to shoot someone out of a window and got blown away instead and also CHRIST JESUS is our High Priest, he is the one who is in charge not a mortal man called Joseph Smith, Hebrews talks about this. Christ Jesus is our highpriest, our mediator, our Savior, our King and our Lord, to no other are we to give laud and honor, praise or glory.

In the begining was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the begining. Through him all things were made: without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:1-5

...but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them......Hebrews 7:24-25

The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest [Jesus Christ] who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. Hebrews 8:1-2

There once was a little green van....

2008-04-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

.....that went to Logan Utah, with three girls and a Mom. It didn't know what it was in for...driving 1400+ miles, being hit by a bird and coming home loaded down with three hundred books. Yes my friends it is true Donzel and I picked up around 300 books while there, mostly at the Salt Lake City Library, it had a HUGE book sale, a massive book sale, a COLOSSAL book sale! We didn't count, but the guesstimate is around 10,000 to 15,000 books were being sold that day.

I'm sure you will affirm our status as Book LOVERS when it is told how we rose at 4:00 am picked up our brown bag lunch and drove two hours to arrive at 7:00 am just as the doors opened. Flooding in with the streams of other BLs we beat up old ladies for a shopping cart and rammed our way down packed aisle, fighting for Dickons, Kipling, Christie, Collins and more. Well actually everyone was very polite and nice, many "excuse me's" and "thanks" were extended, BLs for the most part aren't a violant crowd. We tend to hudel, gasp and pat the books around us, then beam a brilliant smile when finding a true treasure. People even, upon hearing someone was look for a certain book or author, would call out when they found it and pass it along.

We three girls kept filling the cart, pushing it out, dumping it into boxes and going back for another pass. By 10:30 we had 15 boxes waiting to be sorted and culled, which took another hour. The grand total was 10 boxes, 5 for me, 3 for Donzel and 2 for Michelle. Sigh and I could have gone in for another pass, so many treasures left behind.....

Although it was good we took lunch when we did, because something funny happened out in the parking garage. A small silver car was parked next to us and a normal looking, middle aged lady climbed in and prepared to drive off. However she didn't back up as you might think she would, but pulled forward! Michelle (who was sitting where she could see it all happening) begain to say "Oh no, no, no, stop, STOP" as this lady drove UP and OVER the parking curb. CCCCRRRUUNNCCHHHH, SCRAAAAAPPPPEEEEE, crunch, crunch, CRUNCH went her poor little car and "eeeeeeppppppppp" went we three girls and then "heee hee ho ho ha ha" into our sandwiches and chips. Sheesh, who, when they start to go OVER a bump, doesn't stop, reassess and change the plan? By golly she didn't even get out and check the underside of the car!

That day had a few more stories as well but I wont bore you with them. I'll just sign off with one picture.

The Markus Comes

2008-04-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

In the mail it came, for Donzel a government document, ohhhh. She didn't get excited, played it cool, it would be nothing, just one more request from our dear leaders for more information on her relationship with her fiance Markus.

A hush fell over the crowd (namely Mom and I) she broke the seal..............BA DUM CHA!

The US Government hearby announces Markus Wermelinger can legally enter the USA to marry Donzel Woomert.

GASP, cheers from all sides, hand clapping and celebrating in the streets. A national holiday is ordained, the fattend calf killed, bonfires, fireworks, singing, hot cider, cocoa, beer, broccoli...wait...all right anyway we are very happy our dear beloved Markus will be coming home. Finally. I can hear the chanting now....Markus.....Markus.....Markus....Markus....Markus!

Tremble

2008-03-24T20:52:00.000-07:00

Gritting our teeth, eyeing the enemy and shaking in our sandles, we huddled together, short chuffing gasps sifted from our chests. All of us held a weapon, a razor blade here, a hot iron there, a spray bottle filled with water was tossed from hand to hand to prevent the handle from getting slick with sweat. Without a doubt this was it, make or break time, were we mice? or......something else? I assure you not mice!

With fierce cries we attcked in a mad frenzy, wall paper flying every which way, chunks of dry wall spinning off into the air. We yelled instructions at each other with the intensity of field doctors in war zone, "Razor"........"mist it now"......."more heat....no not there....THERE!"......"Gggggrrrr I'm going to need to amputate this piece of wall"...."I..I don't think I can save this one, it's to, to far gone".

Seven hours later our dining room was stripped of all paper, and four very tired kids stood looking at the carnage that had once been our walls. Bare dry wall was crossed with the most amazing color of teal that hadn't seen the light of day since our Gran covered it up in the late 70s. After much discusion it was decided it now reminded us of a seedy hotel in Greece (been there) or a shot up Zimbabwa house (haven't been there) with bright teal paint and peeling plaster. Rather ghetto-ish actually. The boys voted on leaving it that way, but the girls where firm that nothing would induce us to have a ghetto-dining room. SBW announced that, since who ever had set the dry wall had obviously NOT known what he was about, we should just tear it out and start anew. And along the way we could fix the celing and rewire everything. Gasp.

Mom's eyes begain to roll back in her head at the thought of the room being gutted, groping about for a seat she collapsed. Rushing to help, we girls (who have read many a Austen book) looked for the smelling salts, realizing those weren't something we had on hand, we opted for cold water thrown across her feverish brow.

In the end we decided to mud the walls and cover over the gouges that *somebody* had made and then sand it down and hope for the best. Our first jab at mudding was horrible, and Mom was appalled and set about fixing it. When she and DBW were done it looked quite decent, and after sanding three times the wall was for the most part smooth. Then came the "easy" part, painting, repainting and painting some more made our walls a sunny, warm, buttery yellow with white ceiling and trim. Still, no two walls are straight and no corner is square, the ceiling ripples like water and the floor slants, but for the most part we are pleased and happy with our amateurish revamping.....and we even cleaned the carpet.

However *looks darkly about* the rest of the house is now extremly dusty and needs "a good bottoming" as Mrs. P would say.

Gotta Tell Somebody

2008-03-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

She kept on getting weaker as day dragged into day
The doctors gave no hope for her; she seemed to fade away
My hours were filled with constant dread; time became a knife
That slowly and relentlessly cut the cord of life

There was a teacher in the region then some of us had heard
That He'd healed the paralytic by the power of just His Word
So with hope again rekindled I went at once to see
If I could find a man named Jesus from a town in Galilee
I began to search the city and soon I saw the crowd

They were pressing in to touch Him and they called His Name out loud
But with the strength of desperation I pushed them all asideI through myself before Him and from my knees I cried"Lord, come and heal my daughter, even now she's close to death
Her fever's uncontrollable, she fights for every breath
But God's given You the power; life is Yours to give

If you'll just lay Your hands on her I know that she will live"(She will live, she will live)
Well, He'd just begun to go with me when a face I saw with fear
Came towards me with the news I knew I didn't want to hear
And although I tried to steel myself I trembled when he said"Why bother the Teacher anymore, your little girl is dead.

"Then Jesus touched my shoulder and He told me not to grieve
The trembling stopped when He looked at me and said, "Only believe"Then He sent the crowds away except His closest men And they followed right behind us as we started off again

But we were still a long ways down the road when I heard the sounds and cries
Of the mourners and musicians as they strove to dramatize
My grief they had no business with beneath their loud disguise
My wife just sat there silently and stared through empty eyes

Then Jesus asked the mourners, "Why is it that you weep?
She isn't dead as you suppose, the child is just asleep."It only took a moment for their wails to turn to jeers"Who does this man think he is? Get him out of here!"With authority I've never heard in the lips of any man
He spoke and every sound rolled out with the thunder of commandAnd in the sudden silence they all hurried for the door

Wondering what the reasons were they'd ever come there for
Then He called his three disciples that were with Him on the way
He led them and my wife and me to where our daughter layHe took her by the hand; He told her "Child, arise"And the words were barely spoken when she opened up her eyes

She rose and walked across the room and stood there at our sides
My wife knelt down and held her close and at last she really cried
And then Jesus told us both to see that our daughter had some food
But as to how her life was saved, not to speak a word...Not to speak a word..

I got to tell somebody
I got to tell somebody
I got to tell somebody
I got to tell somebody
I got to tell somebody,
got to tell somebody, what Jesus did for me
I got to tell somebody, got to tell somebody, what Jesus did for me
I got to tell somebody, got to tell somebody, what Jesus did for me
I got to tell somebody, got to tell somebody, what Jesus did for me

By Don Francisco

Allium cepa.

2008-02-21T13:55:00.000-08:00

Hmmm Allium cepa!

Yummy, tasty, healthy and strong. And so lovely, as to bring tears to your eyes. No dish would be the same without it, no hamburger worth it's name could march forth proudly under it's bun if it weren't graced by this, the Allium cepa. It goes into every meal that I prepare and doubled at that, stir fried and delectable, boiled and toothsome, raw and hot, grilled and scrumptious, deep-fat fried and...........wellll delicious it is the ONION! This homely little plant doesn't look like much, it's papery skin rather ugly, it's shape slightly potbellied and stubby BUT, what is in side, now that is the real treasure. Ring upon ring of crisp flesh, white, yellow, red or brown, lends it's zesty and pungent flavor to a casserole, salad, roast or burger. However they can also be sweet as well, take the Walla Walla Sweets or Vidalia onions, so sweet you can slice them and scarf them up raw, without burning your tongue or breaking into a sweat. While others are so spicy that they lift the hair off your head and burn going down.

There are also some good health benifits from eating onions, I quote.

"Evidence suggests that onions may be effective against the common cold, heart disease, diabetes, osteoprosis, and other diseases. They contain anti-inflammatory, anticholesterol, anticancer, and antioxidant components such as quercetin. In many parts of the world, onions are used to heal blisters and boils. The regular consumption of onions has, like garlic, been shown to lower high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, both of which help prevent atherosclerosis and diabetic heart disease, and reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke. These beneficial effects are likely due to onions' sulfur compounds, its chromium and its vitamin B6, which helps prevent heart disease by lowering high homocysteine levels, another significant risk factor for heart attack and stroke. Onions have been singled out as one of the small number of vegetables and fruits that contributed to the significant reduction in heart disease risk seen in a meta-analysis of seven prospective studies. Of the more than 100,000 individuals who participated in these studies, those whose diets most frequently included onions, tea, apples and broccoli-the richest sources of flavonoids-gained a 20% reduction in their risk of heart disease."

Ok so maybe you didn't want a sermon on the benifits of onions but seeing as the Onion Growers Of America are paying me to post this.....not really but onions are truely a glorious veggi. On a funny note did you know that you can say in English"someone really dices my onion!"? Or that amongst the Khasi tribe in North East India, Onion or "piat" in the local dialect refers to someone who is present everywhere or in every social gathering? Ha ha ha.

I should mention Shallots here as well, those beggers have more antioxidents then other onions and better cancer fighting abilities. They are also smaller and stronger and make you cry longer. While in Greece we learned to make a dish called Stafitho into which we mixed (among other things) three pounds of shallots (big recipe don't worry) and a bar of dark chocolate. Skye who was in charge of helping me prepare the shallots found a unique way to prevent himself from crying. After trying matchsticks held in the mouth as well as a piece of bread he went for a more direct and usefull approach. Rolling up two plugs of bread he stuffed them into his nose, according to him this is the most effective way to prevent tears from rolling. And the next time you peel three pounds of shallots you just might try it too.

If you.....

2008-02-06T13:23:00.001-08:00

If someone in a Home Depot store offers youassistance and they don't work there, you live in Idaho .

If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time,you live in Idaho .

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation withsomeone who dialed the wrong number, you live in Idaho .

If "vacation" means going anywhere south of Salt LakeCity for the weekend, you live in Idaho .

If you measure distance in hours, you live in Idaho .

If you know several people who have hit a deer morethan once, you live in Idaho .

If you have switched from "heat" to "A/C" and backagain in the same day, you live in Idaho .
If you install security lights on your house andgarage but leave both unlocked, you live in Idaho .

If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow duringa raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Idaho .

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fitover a snowsuit, you live in Idaho .

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you'regoing 80, and everyone is still passing you, you live in Idaho .

If driving is better in the winter because thepotholes are filled with snow, you live in Idaho .

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter,still winter, and road construction, you live in Idaho .

If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly" you live in Idaho .

If you actually understand these jokes and forwardthem to all your IDAHO friends, you live in Idaho

Irgendwie Anders

2008-01-28T15:21:00.000-08:00

I found Irgendwie Anders in the Fall of 2007, and even though it was in German I "read" the book through three times. "I laughed, I cried....it moved me Bob". Since then my soon to be Swiss brother-in-law found that it was written by an American and translated into German. Now M.W knew I wanted this book and also would actually like to hear it. So last night he called and asked if he could read me a story, then proceded to read Irgendwie Anders to me. In English and German! Take that world, who has a nicer brother in-law now? Huh, huh, huh? And he is going to send me the books....

I laugh

2008-01-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Theological Coffee Cake

2008-01-07T14:36:00.001-08:00

Saturday night I was making Coffee cake for Mom and Dad's anniversary breakfast on Sunday (26 years and, as Sky put it, they have made it this far so we can look forward to at least another 26) when I began to think about sin and self love. See this cake has walnuts in it and (shockingly enough) not all people like walnuts. Specifically TJ and DB (this isn't the sin actually, a failing yes but not a sin) when I thought to myself "I'm to TIRED to make half the topping without nuts, this is such a big deal. They can just lump it and pick them out themselves". Then I stopped short and thought that through again, why didn't I say as glibly "I'm to tired NOT take out the walnuts, it's not a big deal, I'll just make half without nuts because the girls would love it."

How come under the guise of being to tired was I willing to skip doing something nice for my sisters? It's not that hard to answer really I guess but a complex problem that filters through every part of our lives. Dear darling Adam who was the first to fall laid on the rest of us the curse that flows from generation to generation. The curse of sin and a love of self. We aren't really thoughtfull and self sacrificing creatures naturally, it takes an effort of will to put others before us. But enter Christ Jesus into the picture, His blood when it covers you, severs the ties you have to the old Adam. The New Adam has come the Old has gone. But even with Christ Jesus in me that monkey Satan doesn't give up easily, he doesn't want to get off my back and self rears its UGLY head over and over. It takes acts of will to set your face against yourself, put out a hand to Christ and follow him, but once you have done that, put out your hand, the following is easy. However beware the trap is so subtle, watch out for that ol' snake who still is crawling about.

I guess if there was a moral it would be....when in doubt take the walnuts out! Or "love your neighbor as yourself."

By the way it was so much more fun the next morning to see how happy DB and TJ were with the walnutless cake:-).

Oh my aching sides!!

2007-12-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

Looking for payday loans?

C.S Lewis

2007-12-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

What Christmas Means To Me by C.S Lewis.

Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn't go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a 'view' on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend thier own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone's business.

I mean the course of the commercial racket. The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shop-keepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condeming it. I condemn it on the following grounds.

1. It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to 'keep' it (in its third, or commercial aspect) in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out--physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.

2. Most of it is involuntary. The morern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost a blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (who we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?

3. Things are given as present which no mortal ever bought for himself-gaudy and useless gadgets, 'novelties' because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time then to spend them on all this rubbish?

4. The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necesary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labour of it. We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don't know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and recieve masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I'd sooner give them money for nothing and write it off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.

More Pictures

2007-12-11T12:33:00.001-08:00

Yeah, yeah here I am.
Puschel having fun with bubbles.

Doing something with Puschel!

Ha ha ha "nine, nine" ha ha!

Hmmm Johannes and the Palmello

Puschel with her drugs!

Salome and her Oma, Eva Marie.

Puschel and I going for a walk.

Puschel and Salome

SILAS!

Puschel and her Mom.

Here we are again!

2007-12-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

The OM boat was big, standing next to it at the dock we felt like little munchkins next to a giant. Staring at it we gasped and gaped like so many country bumkins, craning our necks back to see the top and then back down to watch all the busy little workers rushing in and out with boxes of things.

We had arrived in Kiel after four easy hours of driving; dumping our stuff at the hostel we headed down to the water to see if we could find the Logos Hope, on which our German friend Michael and his wife were working as jacks-of-all-trades. God was good and the first boat we saw was the sister ship Logos 2, which seemed big untill we spotted Logos Hope. Parking right in front we went over to the little OM kiosk and asked if they could contact Michael for us. Apparently they didn't have a phone line up and running yet so were a little at a loss as what to do with us. Three people later they let us have a badge and told us just to walk over to the boat and find the gangway dude and he would tell us what to do. So away we went to stand once again in confusion while people rushed around us. Finally Donzel snagged a guy and asked him if he knew Michael and would he be kind enough to show us the way? He was kind enough and in two shakes of a lamb's tail we where hopping on board the boat. Leading us through a maze of stairs and coridors we found Michael at the stern of the ship. When our guide hailed Michael and informed him he had a few guests, our Skipper just walked forward a few steps, dropped the hoses he had in his hands, stared at us and said something like "what..who...it...wher....Liesl! Donzel! Markus! Brian! where did you come from!". We found out then that he hadn't gotten our email telling him that we were on our way and would be there in the afternoon, but all was well and he was so excited to see us. Then we had a coffee (standered Michael) and met his wonderful wife Brigitte, who is just one more amazing German on our list of friends now.

Giving us a tour of the boat he told how they had worked for fifteen mounths getting her ready to sail, moving tons of trash, stripping, sanding, resanding, painting, repainting, reresanding, rerepainting, de-rusting, cleaning, ripping out and replacing they overhauled her. Almost every surface had to be stripped of rust.....by hand and on a boat that can sleep 400 people that is no small task. All the air vents had to be redone, the electrical, the engine, the interior ceilings replaced, floors put in, outside stairs fixed, smoke stacks cleaned inside and out. In short: a mind boggeling, stunning amount of work was put into that ship and even though she looks much better there is still quite a lot to be done.

It was a very wonderful three days spent fellowshipping with Michael and Brigitte, it was encouraging to see them and hear how they are doing. We are looking forward to seeing them come to the states next year. The only downside to the boat was due to the lack of fresh air flow and natural light and possibly some bad nuts at the market I got sick and threw up more then I have since.....ohhh ever? In fact as we left the boat for the Holmer's house I was still throwing up, but God was good once again and by the time we arrived Bulow (six hours later) I was ok.

We spent the weekend of the first and the second with our friend Puschel in a little town near Berlin. Well actually we got there on Friday and had supper with Silas and Eva Marie, then collapsed into bed and slept the sleep of the dead ((((with natural light and fresh air!!!!)))). The next day, Saturday we got up and headed out for the big City with Silas to see Puschel in the hospital where she was getting her last shot of chemo. When we arrived she was napping so Johannes took us out to see the sites, both Donzel and I had already visited once before and we so enjoyed seeing the things again. We went to the Brandenburg gate and government buildings then saw the Hotel where (famously)Micheal Jackson hung his baby over the balcony and scared the crowd. We also saw Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks. Yeehaw! ((( Can you believe poor Silas has never been to a Starbucks? This we did not know, or we would have remedied that deprivation!))) Then we drove all over Berlin looking for a parking spot so we could have pizza, but there was no parking spot for us, however we saw about a million Smart cars. Which by the way has been a game with us since the begining of our trip trying to spot the Smarts before anyone else does. And Berlin is full of them and in my car (I was riding in the Holmer's van) Silas saw most of them.

On Sunday Puschel came home early as a surprise for her Mom on her Birthday. I however missed out on all the excitment because at 7:30 that morning just as I was waking up something popped in my neck. And my left side was instantly riddeled with pain, by the time Donzel had brought Dad up to see me I couldn't turn my head to the left. I was crying partly because of the pain and partly because I had no clue as to what was going on. We prayed and then I calmed down a bit and decided that I must have just (ha ha just!) pinched a nerve in my neck. Possibly due to landing on my head last year while skiing. So Sunday morning in Germany was spent laying in bed eating asprin like candy and having Donzel and Dad read Job to me. By the mid afternoon I was able to get up and eat something but being VERY careful to always keep my head stricktly to the right. Puschel and I chatted by cell phone for a while and that was fun then Markus showed me all his pictures from the USA trip. Stating that he didn't often get such a captive audiance.
Then on Monday Donzel, Dad and Markus left for Stuttgart and I stayed behind to visit Puschel for the week. Which was a total blast, even if my neck still killed, I enjoyed the Holmer family to the fullest. Silas and I had so much fun goofing off together and even if we didn't always understand each other it was good. Puschel is doing quite well under the circumstance and she keeps busy painting and playing with her niece Salome. Often times she is tired and nauseated due to the Chemo and the other drugs she is taking, but through it all she is cheerful and up beat, praising God and enjoying herself. Johannes and Silas take much care that her room is invalid friendly, contecting everything so at the push of a botton she can turn lights, the TV and music on or off. At the push of one botton the bell in the kitchen rings, at the push of another the bell in her Mom's bedroom rings; making it possible to call someone when ever she needs it. Not only that they all carry cell phones so just in case they don't hear the bell she can get a hold of them that way.

On Friday I was going to get a ticket from a little town near Bulow to Berlin, but due to Puschel's white blood cells being at zero they took her to the hosptial to get some blood. We arrived there at 4:30 and she settled in, four hours later when I left for the train station she still hadn't gotten the blood. When I called the next day I found out that they hadn't brought it to her until 11 that night and they didn't get home until 1:30.am. That was rather a trial as she hates going to the hospital for any reason and getting stuck there for that long for no reason was rather irritating. But she is home now and (God willing) won't being going back till after Christmas on the 27th. So please remember to pray for her as she has quite a long way to go yet.

I fell off the couch laughing.

2007-11-26T06:25:00.001-08:00

A cute baby of the Netherlands....and his fan club.

2007-11-26T01:18:00.001-08:00

Markus with Nataniel, Peter's nephew. Monque and her husband opening the gifts we brought.

Monque and Nataniel

Mom, Nataniel and Grandma.

The very happy family.

Peter and Donzel plus a cute baby! Ahhhh!

Har har

2007-11-25T09:52:00.001-08:00

Ciao!

Dancing the old Swiss stomp.

Blow man, blow!

Schyler....your favorite meal!

What? Old El Paso in Switerland?

That is a real bar of Toblerone Chocolate! You can buy that thing!

Dashing Through the Neatherlands and on to Germany!

2007-11-25T08:31:00.000-08:00

The Dutch are amazing, living below sea level they built a dike system to be envied. Living cheek by jowel with one another they are packed into the country side like so many sardenes. Over flowing with windmills and flowers what little country side they do have is quite lovely. Our friend Peter's house was a very small yet functional row house, with ity bity bedrooms and stairs that if you fell down them you might shoot through the glass door at the bottom. Which Peter has actually done. A slim galley style kitchen with a tiny stove that could never cook a turkey in, takes up all of fifteen feet of the house. Once while out walking we found a Reality Store and stopped to look at the prices, a 160 square meter apartment was going for something like 300,000 Euros. GASP! The tiny houses where more in the range of 500,000 Euros, wow wow incredible.
The other amazing thing about the Dutch is that they can understand each other, their language just cracks me up, it is one of the most, in the back of your throat, hacking sounds I have yet to hear. Extremly cool sounding but almost impossible to learn, well for this American girl at least. Markus said that it was quite funny since he could almost understand them but not quite. For our first meal we ate traditional Dutch Hot Pot (I think) which is boiled potatoes and carrots with a yummy fried meat patty that goes with it. The breakfast is bread, cheese, tea, Nutella, peanutbutter (gasp?) butter and sliced meat. This is actually lunch as well but that is ok since we love meat, cheese and bread. We also check out the sea side which was nice but not really that exciting however there are these yummy small pancakes that they make there that you eat with sweet things like strawberries and ice-cream. The last thing we did was show Peter and his Mom pictures of Markus' trip to Alaska, they oooooed and aaaaad over the fish, the bears, the trees and everything else that they don't have in the Neatherlands.
After leaving Peter's house on Thursday afternoon we headed for Germany, in a car loaded with cheese, gifts, baggage and chocolate. Arriving in town a little to early to go to Katha's house we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things to share. Things like, feta cheese, chocolate, bread, milk, yogurt and we also had a conversation with a German lady who wanted to speak English with us and wanted to know where we were from and what we were doing here. It was quite fun and enjoyable to speak with her.
At Katha's we had our first of many cups of tea with her and chatted about old times and new times with her. Then we all headed to bed for a lovely sleep and a good morning full of German gray skies and more German tea. Friday we spent walking around the little Village here and took pictures of all the old homes that are mainly made out of red brick interspursed with wooden beams. Quite a few of them are very tall and huge, they where built I believe in a time when families where bigger and need the space to live.
Saturday was spent wandering around an old town and taking pictures of the old churches and squares. It was quite interesting to hear that the whole town was almost leveled during WW2 and the when it was over and they where rebuilding they just threw up some rather ugly buildings. Then in the 80s they realised "hey these things are ugly!" so they ripped them down and rebuilt to a T the Guild Hall's that stood there from 1556 untill 1948. We also tried German Sausage with Curry sauce, yum yum, very tasty and something I think we should bring to the states. On the way home we busted into a grocery store called Lidil and one to bring back some memories for Donzel, Katha and I as that is the one we shopped at a lot while in Greece. And bought things for a Thanksgiving dinner that we where whipping up that evening. On the menu was stuffing mixed with sauted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravey, apple salad, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and home made cookies with US chocolate chips. Yow! It turned out rather good, everything was tasty and we were sure hungry for it. Although it was sad we couldn't have a pumpkin pie, Katha remembers that foundly from the last time we made Thanksgiving for her.

So it begines...can they fight all the luggage into the car?

2007-11-20T23:28:00.000-08:00

Me trying to stay warm at the soccer match.

Just so everyone knows I`m using a keyboard from Europe, which is not the same as an American one. It took me three minutes just to find the *?* sign and two minutes more to find the *** signs. Ahh well such is life when you are in Europe at least the Y and the Z are in the correct spots. I´ll have you guys know that Stuttgart Germany is a pretty cool place, made even cooler by the uber neat friends we have there.

We left for Stuttgart on Friday at 10:00 am and made really good time, with Markus at the wheel we where just flying along. And what is more amazing is that even though the trains where striking and the roads where supposed to be packed with people our highway wasn´t. After arriving we found out that every other road was packed at there where huge delays....except on ours. God is good and watched over that small detail for us. Friday night we went out with Priska and her sister to walk around Stuttgart and get some Gluwine at a booth hmmm good. Then home to chat with Priska untill....well fairly early in the morning, then we had breakfast with her Mom and brother, Timon, who is pretty funny and has the craziest hair all curly and wild like. For Saturday our plan was low key, we went to the Ritter Sport factory and bought almost all their chocolate. Well not really but it was pretty cheap so we did by a *few* bars. Then we just headed home to make cookies and chat, Priska and I made three different kinds of German Christmas cookes which are all very good. Then we had a yummy supper of left over Pizza (from lunch) and watched a dancing show on TV. That was amazing, there was a tap dancing troop from Switzerland that got my vote as the best one there. On Sunday we went to see Priska play in a football match and her team won 8 to 0 ha ha even if the Ref was making lots of bad calls and even took Priska´s goal away from her and said it was off sides when it wasn´t. Sheesh these Refs! Then home again home agian jigity jig.

We left Stuttgart at 9:19 exactly and eight and half hours later we pulled up in Lisse. So cool that we even found the place due to the weird street signs and strange turns and twist that are in the roads over here. Yesterday Peter had to work but we managed to enjoy our selves by puttering around Haarlem and going to see the Corrie ten Boom house. That was really neat, this time I got into the hiding place my self and felt what it was like to stand there body to body with six people. Stuffed into a tiny spot with all your belongings hardly breathing, for fear they would hear it and come to drag you away. When I stood in the street outside their house I could only think about how sixty years ago it was the busy happy place it is now. But a fear filled city where at any moment the Gestapo might come to rip you out of your home and murder you and your family. Shivver.

Then we had met Peter outside the house at four and walked around and ummm shopped. Both Donzel and I bought a scarf (I know it is an adiction) and then we found a few gifts for the *left behinders* although I´m not telling what they are incase they read this blog. Today we might be going to the ocean although it is rather rainy and cold, we wanted to buy Fondu for dinner but they don´t have a fondu pot so we are going to do something else. But I guess I had better go have a shower or they will be yelling at me for holding up the show.

Two Swiss Guys and other pictures.

2007-11-15T05:31:00.001-08:00

Here is Seppi, he is on his way to the Army for the next week or so and he had to get all dressed up before getting on the train. Just wait till you see the gun that they get to take home and keep!

Swiss guy with Swiss cow bells, they actually do use these on cows!

The Fourteenth of November

2007-11-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

On November Fourteenth of 2004 Markus came to Greece to work on the boat. For one week he slaved, sanded, painted, ripped out and replaced, stripped and fixed, yet still found time to swim, drink coffee, eat huge amounts of food, take pictures and fall in love. Well he at least started to really like Donzel and after getting home began to pursue her with vim and vigor. After many months of letter writing and phone calls, plus a couple visits to the states he and she are sure of God's will for them. So with our parents blessing, yesterday evening on the Fourteenth of November 2007 Markus asked Donzel to be his wife, presenting her with a wooden ring he made himself.

The event took place in a small retreat house, complete with roses, candles, wine, soft music and a fondue dinner. Donzel suspected nothing (due to crafty planning by Markus) she thought the fifteenth would be the big day because they are going to Bern without me. I actually helped lay that seed and did a bunch of laughing and winking to tamp it in firmly. We also took the path of distraction by having Biber and a friend come over to play games all afternoon so Donzel wouldn't notice the rushing to and fro. Markus asked Donzel to get all dressed up so they could take some pictures for the Bern "suprise". So confused and wondering she got all spiffed up and with Markus in a nice black suit headed out the door for the retreat house. My part was to watch and see when he turned on the outside light and then come to take pictures and give hugs. Boy am I glad he didn't take to long at it, I was getting pretty cold hanging out the window watching for that light.

When all the hugging and picture taking was over Emmi and I brought out the lovely dinner she had made. Fondue, pinapple and bread along with a lovely white wine and for dessert Tiramisu with coffee or tea. Then the rest of us headed to bed and left the happy couple basking in the candle light and conversation....or perhaps they just gazed into one anothers eyes...who knows I sure don't.

Stanserhorn

2007-11-14T00:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Markus took Donzel and I to the Mountains! It was truely amazing, I have never seen anything quite like what they have in Switzerland. Every which way you looked there where snow caped peaks, jagged and craggy against a blue sky. Sheer cliffs dropping hundreds of feet and and snow whipping around in the freezing cold air. The veiw is just breath taking and you feel like you could stand there all day long just to gaze at it, but of course you can't because it is freezzzzinggg out there. So then you go into the restaurant and have a esspresso and watch the panaroma from there.

To get up to the top you actaully get to ride the cable car....an open one with sheepskin rugs on the seats to keep your...well to keep you warm. As you sail up, on your left and right are tall Swiss homes clinging to the hills while cows moo and munch on green grass. However there are no pictures of said cows because they came out all fuzzy. About half way up you switch from the car the a gondola which is uber fun as well since it rocks and rises with the slope like a boat on the waves. I fight the temptation to pretend to push Donzel out, just in honor of Grandpa Bill though, not because I really get a kick out of seeing her freak out. The conductor told us that you can see in 100 kilometers in any direction and also you can see Germany, the Black Forest to be exact. After getting to the top Markus and I had a small snowball fight, however it wasn't that great because it was pretty dry snow. So we gave up and just took pictures instead. And uhhh took some more pictures. When we get a bit chilled we head inside to sip some coffee and learn more German, I'm starting the alphabet since I never quite got that one down. Surprisingly enough I do ok with German spelling because you actually sound out all the letters and that makes spelling easier. But then just incase that would make it too easy they through in male and female words and different 'the's' for different things. Arrrggg.

On the way out we took the senic route, driving along the lake and through town. That's when we found a glass museum to go to, we got to stand and watch the men blow glass and make glass bowls. It was neat and very hot looking, however it wasn't vert that exciting glass, since it was all clear and rather heavy looking. However we went into the Hand's On part of the Museum and that was so much fun. We banged on glass to make music and ran our wet fingers around wine glasses to hear the humming. Then we found the round thick glass plate that if you stood infront of it, your body would be warped and enlarged. This we decided was the highlight of the glass works, we stood there and took picture after picture laughing our heads of all the time.

From Home

2007-11-12T07:04:00.000-08:00

Well while dinking around to day I found these pictures on Markus' computer and thought I would upload them quickly. Enjoy.

Kids

2007-11-12T02:30:00.000-08:00

Those kids! They don't care whether or not you can speak their language, they just want to talk with you. To ask you all kinds of questions that, in their speedy Swiss German, you have no chance of understanding. Then you reply in stilted German "uhhhhh ummmmm dine hhmm namen ist was?" *grin* the ice is broken, names, ages and favorite colors are exchanged you're friends!

Tagalog

2007-11-08T08:35:00.000-08:00

Well Donzel and I just got back from a very nice afternoon with Ruth and her husband Andres. They were missionaries for thirty years in the Philippines to a bush people. So she speaks Swiss German, High German, English and Tagalog. He speaks the same, except adding to that list French! Amazing, anyhow we had tea and cakes and of course swiss chocolate then went for a little walk. It was quite a nice afternoon some sun to show off the still green fields although tomorrow there is a chance of snow. We biked there and back again which was rather cool but interesting, you have a better chance to gaze about and see the lovely homes and farms. The roads here are very small, what might be just a bike track in the US is an entire road here. One of them is only wide enough for a small car, so you had better move over when they come along. Though the drivers are used to peope biking and are polite and don't run you over.

Ruth wrote out John 3:16 for us in Tagalog so I thought I would post it here.

Sapagkat gayon na lamang aug pagibig ng Dios sa saugbibutan na ibinigay Niya aug kanyaug bugtong na anak upang ang sinumang sumampalataya sa kanya ay huwag mapahamak kuudi magkaroon ng buhay na wabaug hauggan. John 3:16

Rather neat huh? Well I better quite it will be time for dinner soon (bread, cheese and salad).

Switzerland

2007-11-08T04:14:00.000-08:00

So here we are, in the land of cheese, milk, chocolate and small cars....SWITZERLAND. We landed on Tuesday evening between 6 and 7, I'm not sure of the exact time because well after only sleeping one to two hours and loosing a day things get a bit foggy. At least we figured out how to exit the airport and all our bags arrived with us which was a huge blessing. Donzel and I vote Switzerland as the nicest country to enter into, calm, quite, uber clean and there is no smoking in the airport. Score.

So the plane ride wasn't that bad, although I think it is quite nasty of the airline to make you walk past Gold and Silver First class (seats that become beds, little screens that protect you from sick seat mates), World Traveler Pluss class, (seats that have a foot rest) and then onto The Slough of Despond Cla...oops I mean Second Class. At five two and one half inches my legs are too long for the seats and grimly gazing ahead I realise two thing at the same moment. Dispite trying not to we got seats near the bathroom and there is a screaming child up two rows and to my right. Praise God we weren't on the same flight with the demented two year old English boy, who, in the airport was tearing around like no bodies business. Trailed by his incompitant Mother who could only say in a overly sweet tone "if Timmy keeps running around he will have to sit on Mummy's lap, Timmy come back here" as Timmy shot off. Faint cheers where heard as that family got on the six thirty plane and those drapped across the floor and seats realised he wouldn't be on our later flight. The food was so so and the movies? Out of TWELVE there was only one I could watch and that was Harry Potter, it was the cleanest, best acted, best shot movie of the bunch. The rest where just raunchy and gross, so our intertainment was a little low but I did nap once I figured out how to wrap my legs round the arm rest and slouch really low in the seat. I'm sorry to the airlines but there is no way your going to see my seat belt with only one blanket to cover me. If I had three to wrap in maybe I could leave the belt free for your inspection, however at altitudes of 30 thousand feet if we crash what exactly is the seat belt going to do anyway?

However all is good we are here and enjoying it quite a bit, yesterday we took a bike ride with Emmi (Markus' Mom) down into townish to a friends house. We are going again this afternoon to visit Ruth again, she speaks very good English and wants to have us over for coffee and tea this afternoon. Her house is amazing and quite large actually, and I also believe quite old as well. So I better go and get ready for our ride and coffee outing.

Latin

2007-11-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Lauds
"Nox praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit...."
The night is far on its course; day draws near....

Prime
"Jam lucis orto sidere Deum precemur supplices..."
Now daybreak floods the earth with light.

Tierce
"Flammescat igne caritas accendat ardor proximos..."
May the fire of love burn ever bright, enkindling others with its flame.

Sext
"Qui temperas rerum vices, splendore mane illuminas, et ignibus meridiem..."
Who dost choose the course all things shall run, deck the morning with beauty bright and noon with the blazing sun.

Vespers
"Jam sol recedit igneus.."
The setting sun now turns our gaze to Thee.

Compline
"Noctem quietam et finem perfectum concedat nobis..."
May He grant us a quite night and a perfect end.

Matins
"Domini est terra et quae replent eam orbis terrarum et qui habitant in eo."
The Lord owns earth and all earth's fullness, the round world, and all its inhabitants.

Peter

2007-10-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughtout Utah, Indiana, Idaho, Philippines, Switzerland and Germany, who have been chosen according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

As you come to him, the living Stone- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him- you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For,
"Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from deceitful speech.
He must turn from evil and do good;
he must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against
those who do evil."
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience , so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Verses taken from chapters 1,2 and 3 of 1 Peter and out of the NIV.

Mus Musculus

2007-10-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

That is Latin for "mouse" and plays a star roll in my last late night experience. Given the blood chilling horror of the coming tale (no pun intended) please read with caution. Also for those of you who might not know, my sisters and I sleep in an apartment over the garage, about a hundred feet from the house. There is no running water in said apartment.

Upon waking at 1:30 in the morning and finding my self in need of water, I promptly debated for fifteen minutes on whether or not the drink was truely necessary. My night time psyche argued "but of course one must drink to live" however my daytime psyche who remembered the toils of the day said "sleep, sleep, ah sweet sleep". "Oh foolish nightime girl, never again will I listen, insantity runs in thy vains". Shaking off the warm covers I staggered down the stairs making for the kitchen sink, wrapped in a snuggly fleece robe but forgetting the slippers. Which in retrospect will be filed under BAD MISTAKE Of the YEAR.

It is pertinent to mention here our new neighbor, one who stalks our chickens and eats them, one that (if tempted) might even stalk and eat ME, so crossing our yard in the dark of night isn't for the lily-livered. Compounded by that, three cats and one dog (who is scared of her tail) run sneak attacks from behind and while on the lookout for a Mountain Lion, this can make you cough up your spleen. Or at the very least cause one to leap like a gazelle into the air, lateral off the house and use the picnic table as a launch. Getting a drink after that rather feels like drinking out of the Well of the Waters of Life as in the old stories, even if I'm drinking out of a plastic mug instead of a gold chalice.

Now it would seem that we have come to the end of the yarn and you ask me "but the mouse, what about the mouse?", I'm getting to that dear child be patient. Since our dog is scared of even the rain I decided to take her back to the garage with me and let her sleep there. I stepped off the walk-way on to the damp grass, called to her and, moving briskly in a weaving pattern, (ment to confuse any BIG cats) I trotted across the lawn. In mid trot my bare unsuspecting foot came down squarely.....on a dead mouse. Stricken and cringing, a shiver swayed the core of my soul and streaked through my body and I flinched as I had never flinched before. My mind screaming in silent panic, slowly grasped that I was no longer standing on the ground, I was hanging suspended about three feet in the air held there by the force of my horror. After a few seconds and with firm resolve I calmly got off the air and walked the rest of the way to my room stating over and over "I don't want to know, I don't want to know".

Upon getting into the room a sock was placed on the offending foot and I went to sleep. There's not much else you can do after stepping on a dead mouse, in the rain at 1:30 in the morning. However it will be shivery night in a volcano the next time I go out not wearing my slippers.

Chocolate Once Again

2007-10-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

Can one have to many blogs dedicated to this Phenomenal Comfit? I put it to you that no indeed there can not, this Confection has spand the globe like no other thing ever has...besides beer. But that is another post and not one to be written by me. But I bable, I shall just take an excerpt from the definitive work on this subject, Chocolate: The Consuming Passion by Sandra Boynton.

Bittersweet Chocolate
Although many prefer more mellow, simple strains, a select audience appreciates the sharp, fine intensity of bittersweet. For these discriminating few, chocolate is not so much a physical indulgence as a metaphysical experience. The disciple of bittersweet looks beyond the sensuous to chocolate's spiritual qualities, and finds there an aura, a mystique, a mythos second only to Motherhood.
Those who have this commitment to "Chocolate for Chocolate's Sake" hesitate to allow other ingredients to compromise its purity: Bittersweet usually contains around fifty percent chocolate liquor.
Because of its distinct "bite" true bittersweet offers a marked advantage over other kinds of chocolate: Almost no one will ask more than once to share it with you. For those who strive to attain the highest level of chocolate consciousness-and to further minimize their exposure to "friends of convenience"-it is worthwhile to develop a taste for completely unsweetened chocolate.

How true this is, rarely does anyone wish to share with me my 85 percent Cocoa bar. And I have no "friends of convenience" *sigh* it is good being a bittersweet lover. Now we can't close this chapter without mentioning milk chocolate.

Milk Chocolate
Although drinking chocolate was a well-established activity by the latter part of the nineteenth century, "eating chocolate" (introduced by Fry and Sons in 1847) was still somewhat of a novelty. Daniel Peter, famed Swiss chocolatier, was inspired to try to improve the smoothness and taste of the new candy.
Peter's idea was to combine some other ingredient with chocolate to balance its rough flavor. Naturally, his first thought was, "What does Switzerland have in abundance that I could use to process with chocolate?" His answer: Cheese. The resulting experiment was notoriously unsuccessful.
A number of ill-fated mixtures (grass, edelweiss, watch movements, numbered bank accounts) followed. In fact, no one actually knows how, in 1874, Peter finally stumbled on the answer, although there is some evidence that the simple suggestion of a neighbor ("Moo") was the crucial catalyst.

Or carob.

Carob
Carob is a brown powder made from the pulverized fruit of a Mediterranean evergreen. Some consider carob an adequate substitute for chocolate because it has some similar nutrients (calcium, phosphorus), and because it can, when combined with vegetable fat and suger, be made to approzimate the color and consistency of chocolate. Of course, the same arguments can as persuasivly be made in favor of dirt.

I will leave you with a few more provocative
observation by Ms Boynton.

The greatest tragedies were written by the Greeks and by Shakespeare. Neither knew chocolate. The Swiss are known for nonviolence. They are also known for superb chocolate.

Football

2007-09-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

The winds blow chilly and cold, trees shift against an azure blue sky, rubbing their bare branches together like so many chilled fingers. Grass is turning brown and the smell of smoke is in the air, fall has come and with it Football Season. This cries the death knell for quite conversation on the ride home Sunday afternoon. Now the war woops of sports announcers fills our van with an ever heightening cacophony of noise. Dad and Sterling listen with rapt attention as the plays are called and occasionally snorting in derision, making cryptic comments to each other as well as to themselves. As a very tense moment arrives (perhaps the ball is going to be "punted" whatever that means) they shush the car at large. Even if there is no one talking first Dad then Sterling leaning in towards the speakers and shush emphatically. The game bursts upon our ears and sounds something like this.

"This is Bart Frowler and Randy Michacker for Sports Talk Radio, looking at a game between the Texas Rednecks and Greenbacks of Florida during a commercial brake. Well Randy this has been a hard faught tiff between the two teams, but it seems that the Rednecks have it in the bag".
"Why yes Bart they have taken stern hold on the field and haven't given up. They are playing on their own turf and after 50 years of loosing to the Rednecks, this time will be different. And having the ball in the last minutes of the game will almost assure the outcome. Well lets get back to the game".
"Randy the Rednecks are going to play the ball nice and easy only a few second remaining on the clock so no big deal. They appear to keeping it in play as long as possible killing time. But what's this? ahha the Greenbacks attempt a blitz aaaannndd it fails! Roopy Nailhoffer the Quarterback for the Rednecks manages to snap the ball out in time. Tank McAllen the runningback has got it, he is running....the 50 yard line....40...20...10 annndd....he TRIPPED!! Fumble! Fumble!!!! Mallawishas Toopoo picked it up and is running it back at the 20 yard line...30....50.....60....80...90...100 SCORE! The Greenbacks have won again!!! The crowd is going nuts the entire Redneck team is on the ground crying and pounding their fists. That's the game, there are still 10 seconds on the clock but that's the game."

"In other Football news, the Denver Mules were massacred on the field by the Kanses City Peasants 135 to 5. Dirk Slaughterhouse of the Oakland Beggers was red flagged for trying to chew off an opponents ear. Apparently it slipped his mind that the ear was under a helmet. The Philidalphia Buzzards played the Detroit Kittens, a rather wild game hardly anyone scoring, several Bombs thrown as well as two Hail Mary's, the Kittens beat the Buzzards 10 to 7."

This is what we get to look forward to in the next months, not to mention the conversations at breakfast, lunch and dinner about football, the muttering about football, the blogging about football, football forums and arguments about football. As well as them both crouching over the computer hitting the refresh button over and over again watching the scores pop up.

Here am I

2007-09-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken in Georgia by a friend of mine. I'm on seven sets of scaffolding and she is on eight. Spooky.

1 Peter 3:8-12

2007-09-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brother, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For,

"Whoever would love life and see good days
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from decitful speech,
He must turn from evil and do good;
he must seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the
righteous
and his ears are attentive to their
prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against
those who do evil."

Getting What She Wanted

2007-09-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

.....Everyone was staring solemnly at the Tree when Aslan suddenly swung round his head (scatering golden gleams of light from his mane as he did so) and fixed his large eyes on the children. "What is it, children?" he said, for he caught them in the very act of whispering and nudging one another.
"Oh Aslan, sir," said Digory, turning red, "I forgot to tell you. The Witch has already eaten one of those apples, one of the same kind that Tree grew from."
He hadn't really said all he was thinking, but Polly at once said it for him. (Digory was always much more afraid than she of looking a fool.)
"So we thought, Aslan," she said, "that there must be some mistake, and she can't really mind the small of those apples."
"Why do you think that Daughter of Eve?" asked the Lion.
"Well, she ate one."
"Child, he replied, "that is why all the rest are now a horror to her. That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after."
"Oh I see," said Polly. "And I suppose because she took it in the wrong way it won't work with her, I mean it won't make her always young and all that?"
"Alas," said Aslan, shaking his head, "It will. Things always work accoring to their nature. She has won her heart's desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want: they do not always like it."

Irish?

2007-08-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous!

Who's" Your Inner European?

A letter from Puschel's Dad

2007-08-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

Dear friends August 19th

Our dear friends, just I came from the intensiv care unit. Puschels operation endured about 8 hours.The best message of this is:The operation was very good!And we´re very thankful to our God!But the not so good message is: The doctors had to cut the sciatica nerve! Now Puschel will not longer be able to move her foot. certainly the most important functions of her right leg will be! Puschel will be able to walk and to do anything with her legs, certainly with handicap, .How it will be with her continence is in this time not completly clear. But we are hopefully that it will be good.For 3 days she has to stay now at the intensiv care. And 14 day she has to lay in the bed. Then she can try to move and to walk.When I was with Puschel she could speak normally but I thought I couldn´t hear right: she could whisper to me a joke...!

Now we need patience...! The doctor who had operate Puschel said: “My part is over but Lydias part is coming now.”It will be a very hard work for Puschel. The sciatica controls the muscles at the backside of the legs and also the moves of the feet. This is impossible now for Puschel. She will be able to walk but with a not unimportant handicap!!When I had to tell this to Puschel and she realized this she got a few tears in her eyes. She was an athletic girl, somebody of you knows this. I´m thankful and sad about this all. Thankful that God has given us a very good operation. But also sad that God doesn´t want to keep her the complete leg. We believe that God is a powerful and mighty God. And I can´t understand all things.. But I understand that God has given her a very good operation (a lot of bad things could happen in this giant operation!!!) and a lot of possibilities to praise HIM. And Puschel wants to praise HIM. So God will give her the power and energy for all things in the future.

Now Puschel has to recover and to have patience.But 3-4 weeks later it will start the next chemo becaus the cancer in Puschels pelvis is one of the hardest cancers of all. The chemo will start again soon and endure different month!The day in the intensive care unit doday was good. Puschels body has to handle incredibles 20-30 cm long cuts on backside and front of her pelvis, additional a bone what is cutted from the fibula - it would be hard for everybody...In the next days she will come to the normal hospital area. We hope her status will .be good tomorrow. Puschel is getting now a lot of medicine for her pain. But thats the reason for gettng nausa again...Would you like to pray for this and all the other things?You are a very great Gods family. Our father bless you so much. Greetings to you all from Puschel!!!
In HIM

A letter from Puschel

2007-08-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

This comes from my German friend Puschel just before heading into surgery. It encouraged me and hopefully will encourage you.

Again, I want to say thank you to all you who are praying for my family and me. Thank you also for all your dear emails and gifts. I wish I would be able to answer you all.
And then there is the bell … The once you gave money for it, I want to thank you very much. I am excided for the day when the bell will ring the first time.

I am very thankful, that I was able to spend the last 2 weeks at home. Every morning is a fight to get up, because of the weakness. But when I go to bed in the evening, exhausted from the day, I am just thankful to my father in heaven for the things I was able to enjoy that day.
The last couple week’s different people asked me about how I feel towards my surgery and if I am afraid. Let me tell you. His peace has not left me! And honestly I am not afraid yet. ( a little nerves yes but not afraid) You know if I get afraid I am looking down to the waves like Peter did (Matthew 14:22-36) (listen to what the doctors say about what can be after the surgery) but all I want is to fix my eyes on Jesus (Hebr.12:2!) He is the one who is in control. Truly I am right now more excided about what God will do in the future. Whatever will happen is in His hand and shall be to His glory.

You know the doctor told me that after the surgery my leg will never recover fully. That was a shock to hear. But you know after thinking, talking and praying about it I realized that also this is in His hands. God can do much more than we can imagine (Eph. 3:20) and if it comes like the doctor said, well I don’t know why it is like that but God knows. And you know something else? ... Why should I think about the future? I don’t even know what will be tomorrow, so I will enjoy today!!! How great is our God

The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice All the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice Trembles at His voice
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God
Age to age He stands And time is in His hands
Beginning and the end
Beginning and the end
The Godhead Three in One Father Spirit Son
The Lion and the Lamb, the Lion and the Lamb
Name above all names Worthy of all praise
My heart will sing how great is our God
How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see how great, how great is our God

Christian Persecution

2007-08-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read The Voice of the Martyrs?

If not, find and read it!

This newsletter was started by Richard Wurmbrand in 1967, this year is the 40th anniversary. The goal of the it is to bring to light the stories and truth of Christian persecution around the world.

Mr. Wurmbrand was imprisoned for a total of 14 years in Communist Romania, three of those spent in solitary confinement. He was stripped of his name and identity, his family was told he had escaped to the West with money he had stolen. When this was proven wrong, they were told he died in prison. Taking away everything they left him to rot in a solitary cell. All this for just being a leader in the underground church.

But God was glorified even here. Preaching to an empty cell for two years he found that someone could hear him. Starting out with a simple code "A" being one tap; "B" being two and so on, they talked back and forth. Once established the unseen prisoner went on to teach Mr. Wurmbrand the Morse code. The man was burdened with sin and through the "tapping" came to know Christ. Also Mr. Wurmbrand learned his cell was adjacent to the toilet where prisoners would line up each morning. He began to shout through the wall, "God is good," "Jesus died for your sins," "Believe in Jesus," "He is your only hope," "Hallelujah!" He became know as the "Hallelujah Pastor" and his reputation spread throughout the prisons of Romania.

There are hundreds of stories like his, from people in North Korea, China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran and the Sudan to name a few. Christians who have been, imprisoned, beaten, burned, tortured, inslaved and killed. At the least many are turned out of their homes as beggers in the streets. But as you read these testimonies something springs out at you, though they pass daily through flames and are never physically at peace, they have a love for those who hurt them. Going back again and again crying out and preaching the name of Jesus Christ to those who hate them.

In the back of the newsletter they have a country summary. Giving you information on each country, the percentage of Christians, the goverment, what the persecution is like and how Christians survive. Out of 51 countries named in this issue 33 are Islamic in the official state religion. And as for the rest of the countries there are only a few that don't have a fair sized percentage of Islamic people.

For more information go to www.persecution.com the newsletter is published 12 times a year and it is free.

GET EXCITED

2007-08-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching a movie called Do You Care For the Lost? by Mark Cahill. He was speaking at Purdue University in Indiana at the National Youth Conference in 2006. This man is a brilliant and wonderful example of what it is to be rejoicing in Christ. His desire is to share Christ with every person he meets and he encourages us to do the same. Not in a smarmy, sappy, 'Jesus will fix everything so you will never have another problem again' way. BUT with a burning 'they're LOST, they're DYING, they're going to HELL and they need salvation in CHRIST JESUS' way. We do not give them salvation, but we give them the information they need to know to see their sin and utter need for a Savior.

He talks about every situation being a 'winning' one, you can either plant a seed, see someone come to Christ or be rejected. See 1 Peter 4:14 on the rejected part. Also on being bold and using every opportunity that comes along. Oh yes remember you don't "have" to witness you "GET" to witness. Show Jesus Christ's love to a lost world, follow when he says "Go into the world and preach the good news to all creation" Mark 16:15. And be excited, we have salvation, rebirth, a cleansing from sin and a Father in heaven, what more is there to be excited about?

Mark Cahill has a website http://www.markcahill.org/ and a email address mark@markcahill.org if you want to find out more. He also has some books out, the one I'm reading right now is called One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven.

The Little Blue Engine

2007-08-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

The little blue engine looked up the hill.
His light was weak, his whistle was shrill.
He was tired and small, and the hill was tall,
And his face blushed red as he softly said,
"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

So he started up with a chug and a strain,
And he puffed and pulled with might and main.
And slowly he climbed, a foot at a time,
"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

With a squeak and a creak and a toot and a sigh,
With an extra hope and an extra try,
He would not stop-now he neared the top-
And strong and proud he cried out loud,
"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!"

He was almost there, when--CRASH! SMASH! BASH!
He slid down and mashed into engine hash
On the rocks below.....which goes to show
If the track is tough and hill is rough,
THINKING you can just ain't enough!

By Shell Silverstein

The world says "believe in yourself.....look to your inner strength.....you can do anything you want to just by believing in yourself......

Mr. Silverstein has it a bit more right, pointing out that by just thinking you can, usually isn't enough. However we Christians can take it a step beyond that, agreeing with him but adding these things....

....being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance....

......He will keep you strong to the end...

.....My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.....

....Finally, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power....

....He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whome I take refuge......

.....stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.....

..I can do everything THROUGH HIM who gives me strength...

Our trust isn't in ourselves, Praise God, for if it where we would stumble and fall, being turned into engine hash. But we lean on Christ who strengthens us to endure, run the race, triumph over all things and do everything through him. AMEN.

Take Off!

2007-08-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

*Ahem*
Something exciting and news worthy has taken place in Sandpoint Idaho. No, Paris Hilton isn't vacationing there and no, Lindsey Lohan hasn't been caught with drugs on the beach. This is much, much more important and wonderful then any starlett sighting.

The Quest Aircraft Company (based in Sandpoint ID) has been working on a new airplane, the Kodiak. It was announced on July 18th 2007 that the FAA has officially certified it. 32 months after the first flight of the Kodiak prototype and just 2 1/2 months after the fully conforming Kodiak.

This airplane is designed for mission aviation, it was built to carry heavy loads and land and take off on short, rugged runways. It can cut in half the time it takes to carry people and supplies in and out of the bush and make it much safer to do so. Quest was founded by Dave Voetmann, a long time veteran of mission aviation. Established as a self-sustaining charitable trust he has raised more then 40 million from donors interested only in spreading Christianity. And turned down 20 million from venture capitalists seeking a profit. To keep costs down he signed on unpaid board members who also contributed large sums to the project.

A quote from World Magazine runs thus.
"In 10,000 hours of flights, mostly over unmapped territories, Voetmann never crashed a plane. But he did push existing technology to the brink of its capabilities. Three times he destroyed propellers when bumpy landings pushed the nose of his aircraft too close to the ground. Rainy conditions only exacerbate problems for Cessna's Caravan model, a popular choice among missionary pilots. "It's too heavy," Voetmann says. "I'd bury it in the mud until you couldn't see what color it was." The only planes ever specifically designed for missionary or humanitarian use in undeveloped backcountry ceased manufacture decades ago.

After his 25 years as a full-time pilot, Voetmann spent 18 more fundraising and maintaining the air fleet for Idaho-based Mission Aviation Fellowship. Much of that time went to locating and repairing old Beavers and Otters, aircraft models long since out of production. The challenges of that enterprise pushed him to create something new. "You can only rebuild a '58 Chevy so many times," he said.

The Kodiak is no broken-down Chevy. Weighing a svelte 3,450 pounds and ratcheting up to 750 horsepower at takeoff, it needs just 700 feet to get into the air and 750 feet to come back down. It can carry a 3,350-pound load between its 10-seat cabin and expanded cargo pod. Its turbine engine runs on jet fuel, far cheaper and more available than the aviation fuel used in most small planes. Its propeller is 19 inches off the ground, more than twice as high as the Caravan's prop. What's more, the Kodiak is fast. JAARS, a North Carolina-based organization providing aviation services to Bible translators around the world, considers the plane "the ideal missionary aircraft." Other missionary aviators have called it an answer to prayer. "

The attributes of this plane will make the spreading of God's word around the world faster, easier and safer. It will also open up areas that until now were nearly impossible to get to.

Praise the Lord, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord.
Psalm 117

If you would like to know more about Quest Aircraft go to http://questaircraft.com/

Credits, World Magazine

Corrie Ten Boom

2007-08-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

I was on a friend's blog today and read this, it was encouraging and eye opening so I decided to copy it and put it on my blog (thanks M).

Corrie Ten Boom and Tribulation
Here is an excellent letter written by Corrie Ten Boom concerning tribulation.

"The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room. We may have been the Lord's only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be My son." This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.

Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. "Yes, the Lord will heal me,", Betsy said with confidence. She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy's death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told, "Don't worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured." Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, "We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes – to stand and not faint."

I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next. Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus' sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, "Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation." Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, "Nothing could be any worse than today." But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you; on their part evil is spoken of, but on your part He is glorified." (I Peter 3:14) I found myself saying, "Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!"

In America, the churches sing, "Let the congregation escape tribulation", but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, "Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?"The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood."When I was a little girl, " I said, "I went to my father and said, "Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a marty for Jesus Christ." "Tell me," said Father, "When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?" "No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train." "That is right," my father said, "and so it is with God's strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need – just in time…"My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, " In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore." Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.

But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.How can we get ready for the persecution? First we need to feed on the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God.We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian's life.

Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, and a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad.When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him, for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!"-

Corrie Ten Boom (1974)Credit: Jesus is Lord

Clicking my heels for joy!

2007-08-07T07:41:00.000-07:00

It has happened once again, the best part of leaving, coming home! I enjoyed Georgia quite a bit, however I would not choose to live there. It is very humid and often boiling hot, there are many creepy crawly things and snakes. Their Daddy Longlegs alone are HUGE, some if you hold them in your hand would span your palm with their legs oh yes and they are red. As for the work side of things they went well (I thought), the outside is completely done, however we were not able to finish the inside despite the owners firm belief that we could. It would take another week or two for the finish up, we didn't feel to bad about leaving as the guys hadn't gotten everything ready for us to chink anyway.

The owners wife is in charge of the house and she does quite a bit of changing around. Every time she comes she moves something, the poor guys have had to rip out plumbing, electrical lines, doors, windows and lots of other things and move them. She even told us that she wanted to re-chink the outside of the house. Due to the fact she likes the chink color on the inside better then the one on the outside. They are only SLIGHTLY diffrent, one is more white and the other more red. The funny thing is, it is really the dark stain on the outside of the house that makes the chink look so white. And as there is no stain on the inside logs the chink looks quite a bit darker. We decided (well this was P's suggestion) she needs a job to take up her time so she isn't spending all day thinking about the house and what she needs to change. Did I mention the house is somewhere in the nighborhood of 8500 square feet? It has a kitchen and laundry room on all three floors, eight foot doorways and vaulted ceilings everywhere. It took us five sets of scaffolding to get up to some of the stuff and the mason crew eight sets. Amazing, amazing.

My flight home was very nice, nothing crazy happened and I got on all the flights just fine. I didn't sit next to anyone strange which was an answer to prayer. It is good to be home and enjoying my family once again.

Chinking

2007-07-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

It is Georgia alright, humid, buggy and full of hardwood trees. However it is cooler here then at home which is a shock. Last week we worked six days and rested on Sunday, it was pretty good, we got a lot of the high stuff done. Climbing up and standing on five sets of scaffolding was something new for me. I can only think of how much I don't really like hights when I'm up there, each set is five feet high so that is only 25 feet, but picture trying to lean out and stuff something into a wall. Over and over and over again, while the scaffolding creaks and groans. Oh yes and then there's the whole carrying up buckets of water and all the other things you need (what I needed was a safety harness but they don't provide those). The girls are very nice, I get the easy stuff and no crazy corners where you have to cling by tooth and claw to the wall. Also the guys who are working on the house site are very nice and set everything up for us. They made a really nice sturdy platform and just about gave us all the walk-boards there where in the place. When one of the girls mentioned I was a bit worried about the hight the man who was setting up just said (in his slow southern way) "Well are you going to jump?" when told "NO" he replied "Ok then you have nothing to worry about". At the end of the week I'm very proud of my self, I have moved from clinging on with two hands to clinging with one.A step up in the world if I due say so to my self.

Highlights are we laugh a lot, much humor is passed around and we have a pretty good time. I get some friendly flack for knowing the songs on the station the guys listen too, J and M where keeping track of just how many I knew. Also we eat our lunch down on the dock and last week I caught a fish in a plastic bag, the girls had been feeding it every since they came. But it was a bully fish and mean to the other ones around it, so we didn't feel bad about eating it. I killed it and ahem deheaded it and J gutted and cooked it. Next time we are getting a better knife, razor blades where just not ment to cut heads off fish. Oh yes other highlights are blackberry and coconut pies, wonderful things indeed.

Today we took a half day off due to rain, my fault seeing as I decided not to pack my rain jacket, oh well next time I'll know better. But it is nice to rest and check up on a few things.

A wandering I will go

2007-07-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

Next on the menu...Georgia! To this state I go to work for a month, it will be hot, humid and sultry. But there are perks, I will have the company of some of the best people around, constantly be messing about in dirty water, being ordered (very nicely) to refill the chink machine, climbing to new hights (not by choice) on scaffolding, becoming bucket slave of the year and queen of spray bottles. I'm the neebie of the crew, baby, gofer, slave and pig. However the girls are ever so nice and are quite willing to help me out and redirect me when I get on the wrong path. Also as the weeks go the "chink" launguage will get easier to understand, I've got messy mess, gookum, snacky snack and a sundery of other things under my belt already. So here's to Georgia may the big bugs stay away from me and may the heat not kill me.

Oh HJK (you know who you are) I grovel and cower, forgive oh forgive this knave, this poltroon for failing in the quest. Turn your smile once more upon me and make my life to shine, don't be angry with me. In August I'll make the trip and see your apartment and Frank.

P.S
I would just like to mention that as of yesterday my boss also uses me to test the waters. Before she would jump of a rockinto the river she "asked" me to go first. I'm now rather scared of the scaffolding, she'll be using me to test it and see if it will stay up. Eeek.

Food

2007-06-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

Food is important, tasty, healthy, needed and wanted, but it is also a brilliant display of how creative and amazing God is. The panorama of food (if you will) covers a broad and deep land inhabited by mountains, valleys, plains, rivers and lakes of flavor. In it He thought to place all good things that would please our tastes, salty, sweet, tangy, hot, spicy and sour to name a few. There are things that loved by one nation and not another, such as the Durian fruit of Asia. It would seem that to some, this is a choice fruit, much loved and adored. While by others it has been described like this "its odor is best described as turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away" Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia. However here we love dairy, over in Asia often they find that disgusting. Ambrosia to some and well, less then appealing to others, yet God created it and gave it to us to savor.

In this world of packaged foods, premade dinners, "forever bread", twinkies and caned goods people are missing out on one of the great blessings we have been given. Not just the eating of, but the cooking, baking, frying, chilling, freezing, sauteing, chopping, grating, seasoning, kneading, slicing,pickling, diceing, crushing, melting, broiling, dipping, zesting, sifting, folding, rolling, grilling, frosting, boiling and whipping of delectable food. When we stop eating things made with ingrediants from home, from scratch with loving hands we loose. Plain and simple, we miss out and loose. At the least health breaks down, appreciation falls, and a skill is lost. At the most I would like to put forth that, when only imbibing of bland and cellophaned food, we miss out on enjoying the Lord. And in a small way show contempt for what he has given us. So stand up, praise and thank Him for gifting this blessing to us, then pick up your bowls, whisks and Kitchen Aids and COOK!

Go Green

2007-06-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

In light of Sheryl Crow's infectious words to the world on the proper use of paper products, quote "I propose a limitation be put on how many squares [sic] of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required" end quote. I was inspired to come up with my own list for Going Green. This took up the good part of the morning yesterday while I was driving to the city, "gasp" I was driving "oh no!!".

Now dear Sheryl only covered the paper side of life but that seemed a little narrow minded to me, why not go the whole hog? Hit every area and hit it where it will hurt 'em, be mean and nasty.

To get this started I'll put forth my ice-cream bowl idea. Never EVER get your ice-cream in a paper or styrofoam bowl. Always request the waffel cone or bowl, at the very least demand glass or china. Stand on your rights (you're saving the world remember) don't take "we don't have glass bowls" for an answer, stomp over to a table on which rest a glass ash tray and shake it in the servers face, ask that this be used as the vessel for your dessert.

Stop using makeup. Those little plastic jars, bottles, tubes and compact cases are never going to decompose. What are you thinking? Every time you throw one away you kill a tree.

Stop with the hair spray, 30% of ozone layer damage has been directly linked to hair spray.

If you must use makeup always put it on with cotton balls, then save those balls. Gently wash them out, when dry and fluffy get a cotton pillow sham and stuff it with the cotton balls. Give as Christmas gifts.

Hey put down the hair dryer! With most of our electricity coming from damned up rivers how can you be using it to dry your hair. Remember, every time you turn on the hair dryer you kill a fish.

Wear one set of clothes for a week. The benifit to the earth will be unmeasurable, saving on water, heat and laundry detergent. Also it will cut down on your social life....less driving!

Always and only buy 100% cotton, linen, wool or hemp clothes, these are earth friendly and are also very hip. When they start to wear out do patch them or make them into a quilt. But when making the quilt please use a foot powered sewing machine otherwise we will classify you with the capitalist factory owners. Oh and please shop exclusively at thrift stores, garage sales, church bazzars and consignment stores.

Take public transportation every where you go, ride the grayhound or train, metro or tram. It doesn't stop where you want to go? To bad, we didn't say being Green was going to be easy you pansy! Ride a bike or walk.

If you must buy a car purchase a used one, where do people get off buying new cars? Ok, ok, low emission, lower gas milage bla bla, but you are creating more waste by not using up what is already there. Hey how about fixing it up so it will run on old cooking grease? Good old golden arches would probably be happy to give their oil away. Perhaps it does stink but remember "tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows"....

Use canvase carrying bags, spurn those plastic abominations from Safeway or Wal-Mart. If it takes four or five trips from store to home (while riding public transport) carrying food oh well you are doing your part.

Stop buying Kleenex or paper towels, use cotton hankies and cotton rags.

Take cold showers, the hot water heater is a silent but deadly enemy of our world. Eating up massive chunks of energy in a day, this killer must be stopped. The best way to clean up would be to buy biodegradible soap and take your showers on the lawn. That way you will be instantly recycling water back into the earth and not be using the killer. This goes for laundry as well, get a front loader (they use less water) and wash in cold, never hot. In the summer take several lengths of vaccume cleaner hose and hook it up to the drain on the washer. Run it out your door on to the lawn and water it. Don't touch that dryer, another viper in our bosom, dry clothes in the basement,. Don't have one? Then use the living room, hung right clothes lines are virtually unnoticeable.

Save all the yogurt, sour cream and cottage cheese containers and re-use them. Perhaps as just left over food holders or cut down one side and around the bottom, take the sides and flatten out by placing under your mattress. When flat use to roof a house, dog house or trailer. Take the bottoms, hang on string and place in doorways as you would those bead curtains.

By the way do you have carpet and furniture in your house? Tisk, tisk go Japanese style bare wood floors with cushions and sleeping mats.

Eschew that pool, not only does it confuse poor bugs and other wildlife,it is filled with chemicals. Turn it into a root-celler for the big garden you are putting in your back yard. There is also a place in every loving family for a compost heap, live in an apartment? Use your balcony, hallways or bathtub, you won't be using that anymore right?

Ice-cream boxes, oh ho ho I know you guys have these, when empty wash well and cut like yogurt containers. Then place your foot on it and cut to shape, stack four or five layers together to form a foot bed. Take hemp rope and tie on to your foot as sandles. If you want more water proof shoes take an un-flattened yogurt container and place in a U shape over sandle, stitch on with hemp twine waalaa!

There are many things lurking in your bathrooms that are deadly to this green earth. The toothbrush and toothpaste tubes for one, those things are over flowing our landfills. I implore you, stop using them! Do what the mountain men did, get a twig and chew on it, if you must have a paste create your own out of salt, baking soda and a little water. Be sure when you are done with the stick to put it on your compost pile. As for flossing use cotton or hemp thread, that other stuff must go. As for shampo I hope I don't find those things in your house. They come in plastic, plastic, PLASTIC. Get with it, the new thing (or old thing really) are dirt washes. There were Indians of old that would put wet clay in their hair then allow it to dry. Once dry it would be rinsed out and all the oils and bugs would slide away. How amazingly earth loving is that? you use dirt and then return it.

Well that is it for now but I will leave you with one last word, a 'must' for all earth conscience people..... Outhouse!

The Blessed Land......

2007-06-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

......otherwise known as Northern Idaho.

S and I are quite happy to be home, back where the air is cool and smells clean, back where you're not look at neighbors on all fours sides, back where the water is cool and clear....and you can drink it straight out of the tap. Yes life is good up here in the North, the garden is growning, the green house is almost done and we aren't in Texas anymore. Well I don't want to hit to hard on that state, there are lots of people who love it...I'm just now one of them. However I can take heart and hold J's words before my eyes, "it was just training for Georgia". Sweet crunchy pickle! here we go again, I'm heading out to the heat of the South, why, why? On top of that I'm going to be hot and sweating on four or five sets of scaffolding. Compounding the horror by three fold I think.

But more about the 2000+ mile drive. S and I were in Grandpa's little white truck the whole way. We listened to LOTR, P.G Whodehouse, sang (ok I sang, he didn't) and grooved to some hot tunes. Around the middle of Montana we found that the oil was leaking horribly in our truck and from there on out it guzzled a quart every hundred miles. God was watching over us because when S check the dip stick there wasn't even any oil on it, if he had waited till the next stop to check..... The worst thing was the pressure gage wasn't working. It sat at normal the whole time, making it hard to judge just how much we where loosing. But we did make it home, albeit on a heightened sense of awareness of what our engine was doing. Grandpa has unloaded all this things and moved the Penske truck back to where it belongs. He will probably be starting on house plans this summer or at least mobile home plans. He declared that no way, no how was he going to live in our spare bedroom for six months or a year. I can't understand why, 7x15 foot rooms are the best.

Sons of God

2007-06-11T14:07:00.001-07:00

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, the heirs according to the promise.

I found out....

2007-06-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

......I no longer love popcorn.

......but I do love spicy food.

.......The third Pirate movie was about a hour and a half to long.

.......There is no bed like my bed.

Things are going well here, we are still packing and Grandpa is working hard on sorting stuff. I think when people move you just have to get into a cold blooded mindset. Slaughtering memories and stuff left and right, take no prisoners, kill all in your path. When in doubt throw it out. Otherwise you just will not survive the move. For Grandpa we have found that beer and brownies are the answer, slip him a beer with lunch and at least his nap will be longer. Feed him a brownie in the afternoon as a pick-me-up. It seems to help. Well speaking of moving I should be out of here or he and Schyler will be yelping about how long I've been gone.

Texas where your clothes feel damp all the timmmmee!!

2007-05-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

Ok Texas hot yet damp, cool yet damp, rainy and really damp. Lets all say it together dammmpppp, give me a D...A....M....P! DAMP. When you lay down at night your sheets feel wet, when you get up in the morning and put your jeans on they feel...wet, skin, hair, shirts and PJs wet. Suprise, suprise!

10 Facts about Texas.

#1 The water tastes horrible
#2 There are way to many cars
#3 It is hot
#4 Hot and humid
#5 The gas is cheaper
#6 The people are bigger
#7 When thunder stormes move in it gets as dark at 9:00am as it would be at 9:00pm
#8 People don't use their blinkers to turn
#9 There's a Wal-Mart on every corner
#10 More BUGS

Today we can't work because the power is out due to a huge storm, that is why we have come to the library. Less boring here and at least I can look at my blog and pick up a book. In the last days Schyler and I have cans and cans of food out of Grandpa's pantry. They range in age from 2000 to 1970, the vintage ones we are keeping to sell on Ebay, the others we are eating or packing. Schyler gave Grandpa the name Jack after we packed up all his beans, get it? Ha ha made us laugh at least. Otherwise things are going fine, we are sailing right along...or atleast that is what we keep telling ourselves.

"Well so long, take luck, thanks for all the fish" (a mixed quote from Brian Reagen and Hitchhikers Guide).

Texas

2007-05-26T08:32:00.001-07:00

On Sunday SGW and I are heading out for Texas. There we will be helping our Grandpa pack his things up in light of a move to the North. This, my friends, is no task for the weak of heart, only the strong and brave should apply. Entering the garage reminds me strangly of LOTR, where Aragorn has to enter the Paths of the Dead. As it is aptly put by Malbeth the Seer ( who lived in the days of Arvedui, last king at Fornost) "From the North shall he come, need shall drive him: he shall pass the Door to the Paths of the Dead." and as it is written so shall it be.

But there is a ray of light dear friends, note that it says "he" not "she", therefore the seer is obviously speaking of SGW not me. I will stick to cleaning rooms and washing walls, this being hard enough without an encounter with a scorpion or black widow thrown in.

Here is a picture of SGW putting his game face on, preparing to take on the Garage Wights.

Hopefully we will be return home about the middle of June, given that we are driving one very old truck the drive time might be a bit long. We could use prayer that nothing breaks down or goes wrong, also that Grandpa's house sells. I'm already looking forward to coming home, I love Grandpa but not Texas so much.

Look who T is!

2007-05-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

Take the Quiz here!

Hmmm who would have thought.

2007-05-23T15:17:00.001-07:00

Take the Quiz here!

I like being her.

Puschel

2007-05-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Puschel 23 years old. German. Christian. Has bone Cancer.

With (according to the Dr.s) a thirty percent chance of recovery and at least ten months of Chemo. But as Puschel said "This is man's plan, but God likes to go other ways". Good to remember and take heart in, God has control of all things and Puschel belongs to him. Even as the hair falls from her head and she spend much time sick from Chemo she praises Him. Saying "I wouldn't give up this time with Him for anything, I wouldn't go back. Besides this is just having my months planned out for me, just as if I where going on a vacation. On vacation I would plan it out, so this is just another kind of vacation. I'm not sad or angry, just at peace."

So as you go through the day remember Puschel, pray for her and for her family, for healing but most of all the the Lord would be glorified and lifted up. Thank you. By the way, in the picture above it is apple cider in the bottles, not wine.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in home that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of child birth right up to the present time. Not only so, bu we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, goan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redmption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we oaught to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who serches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, becasue the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all thins God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:18-28

Wise Words

2007-05-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

"Let us see that we don't imagine that we are all called to stand up and preach, and don't suppose that the mere fact that we wear coat and trousers gives us the moral right to inflict our words on our fellow-saints. Do remember that the ministry of the Word is an intensley solemn thing, and God keep you in this time from what is known as the brother with little word. My dear bretheren, the ministry of the Word is God speaking through anointed men by the Holy Spirit, and we have no right to insult the intelligence and fritter away the time of a hundred people, unless the Lord has given us some definite opening of the Holy Scripture in the power of the Holy Ghost."--Harold St. John

Home Again

2007-05-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

After what felt like a whirlwind twelve days back East, we are home and wondering if we ever left, however that doubt can be assuage by these small points.

A: There 714 more pictures on our computer of Maryland and D.C
B: My pocket book is lighter.

Now D and I have been in many European Cities that were lovely and I didn’t realize that there are US cities that are beautiful too. Philadelphia was the first city we saw, wonderful stuff and for the USA so very old. There is something to be said for seeing and touching history, walking the streets, looking through the windows and standing in the cemeteries. Bringing more to reality past centuries and the people who lived in them, Ben Frankland did have a print shop and attended church. The room where the Constitution was signed still stands along with much of its original furnishings, that famous painting of it isn’t just a Artists imagination but what did happen.

Washington D.C. was amazing as well, the Mall much bigger then I could have pictured. Standing there looking from one end to the other was astonishing, there on one hand we have the Lincoln’s memorial and on the other the Capitol. Along the side are lined Smithsonian buildings, massive things that are filled with wonderful and rare items. We spent a whole lot of time in the Portrait Gallery which was one of my favorite places, to be able to vew God-given talent up close is quite exciting. TJ and I spent some time just sitting and looking in this one room, I don’t remember who the Artist was, but we both were filled with awe. On a light and fun note we did go to the Spy museum, incredible what man can and has done to keep tabs on people. The little gadgets that were invented, the lengths people went to in the effort to befuddle and deceive each other was amazing. Also the iron will to fight back against the enemy during war ( WW11 especially) brought tears to my eyes. I wondered if my generation would be able to do the things that they did, walking with death on their left or right and often times following close behind.

D.C. was full of bustle and hurry, everyone is going somewhere or coming...fast. Hop on, hop off, hurry the doors are opening or closing, don’t get smashed (as Tivoli almost did) run, run. No where was this more evident then in the Capitol building, people in suits flying all over the place, dashing hither and yon doing Very Important Things. Made me think rather of an ants nest that is perpetually stirred up. Rather scary when you think that those people are who decided things for our whole country and perhaps there aren’t very many Mr. Sali’s or LT’s there. But in the end it will be God who has the last say in everything and anything that happens. When the last day comes (when ever that is) those great halls and massive monuments will crumble away to dust and be no more. In the end it will only be those who have put their trust in the Lord who will continue on.